Nine-month-old dies of hypothermia in Gaza as Israeli strikes kill 11 in a day

Kinan Ahmed Raqiq, nine months old, was found dead by his father in the tent where the family sheltered overnight in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza. AFP reported the death, citing medical sources, and attributed it to hypothermia as temperatures plunged and Israeli restrictions on aid into the territory continued. Ahmed Raqiq wept outside Nasser Hospital as he held his son's shrouded body. He told AFP he woke to find the baby's skin had turned blue and rushed him to the hospital, where he learned the boy had already frozen to death.

The death came as heavy rains swept Gaza, flooding thousands of tents where most of the enclave's population is sheltering. Medical Aid for Palestine said Friday that surgical services at Nasser Hospital have been suspended and that comprehensive repair and rehabilitation work is needed before they can reopen. Two Israeli drones had struck the hospital's surgical department the previous day, killing six people, including a surgeon and a child, and wounding around 30 others, according to the outlet. An AFP journalist at the scene described a partially collapsed exterior staircase and a wrecked floor inside, where broken concrete mixed with shattered medical equipment.

Israeli attacks intensified across Gaza on Thursday. Health officials put the toll since dawn at 11. Gaza's civil defence reported five more deaths in a series of strikes: one person killed by Israeli fire near al-Bureij camp and another in an attack on a civilian vehicle in Deir el-Balah, both in central Gaza. Wafa named the second victim as 26-year-old Nashat Fouad Awwad. In western Gaza City, a drone struck a vehicle near the entrance to Al-Shifa Hospital, killing two people, while Wafa reported another attack in Jabalia in the north that killed one person and wounded several others.

The violence carried into Friday, when one person was shot dead by Israeli forces in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood, Al Jazeera reported, citing sources at Al-Shifa Hospital.

At least 1,614 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the so-called ceasefire took effect in October last year, with another 5,849 wounded. The overall toll since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza in October 2023 stands at 74,645 killed and 175,978 wounded, with thousands more missing or buried under rubble.