"The Story of Baby Sila Al-Faseeh"

"The Story of Baby Sila Al-Faseeh"
Death by Cold... A Multifaceted Genocide in the Tents of the Gaza Strip
The fragile body of the three-week-old Palestinian infant Sila Al-Faseeh could not withstand the harsh conditions she was born into. Her family lives in a worn-out tent on the beach of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza — only about thirty meters from the sea. At night, the tent turns into a freezing refrigerator. The parents and their children share just three blankets, their only protection from the biting cold.
At five o’clock on Wednesday morning, Sila’s mother woke up to feed her baby. But when she reached for her, she was shocked by the coldness of Sila’s body — motionless and stiff. When she pulled back the blanket, she found that her baby’s skin had turned blue. Sila was biting her tongue, and tiny drops of blood were coming from her nose. There was no pulse, no breath.
Sila had died of the cold.
Inside the tent by the sea, the grieving mother sits surrounded by women who came to comfort her, sorrow etched deeply into her face. She tells Al-Araby Al-Jadeed:
“I woke up as usual to light a fire — we have no other way to heat the formula milk Sila drank, since I couldn’t breastfeed her because of my malnutrition. Her body felt like a piece of wood — cold and stiff. We rushed her to Nasser Medical Complex, and there they told us she had died of the cold.”
She adds:
“Sila was born naturally, weighing around three kilograms, and showed no signs of illness. We tried to keep her warm with every piece of clothing and blanket we had, but it wasn’t enough. I’m still in shock. I can’t comprehend what happened. The sight of her frozen from the cold is unbearable. I pressed my ear to her chest but heard no heartbeat — no sign of breathing.”
Sila’s displaced family fled from Gaza City and now lives in extreme poverty. Her father, a former driver, has been unemployed since the war began. They have no source of income. The tent they live in was borrowed, and the baby’s clothes were donated by neighbors — meant for a boy. The tent lacks any real protection from rain or cold, with no plastic sheets or covers. When it rains, they are forced to take shelter in neighboring tents. Hunger and illness have also struck the family — Sila’s siblings, Nihad (2 years old) and Rayan (4 years old), are both suffering from severe colds.
Sila’s mother now lives in constant fear for her remaining children. She says:
“I lost my baby to the cold after struggling through my pregnancy without enough food. If our neighbors hadn’t given us a can of baby formula, I wouldn’t have been able to feed her. We couldn’t provide her with a crib or warm clothes. I even suggested to my husband that we light a fire inside the tent to warm her, but we were afraid she might suffocate — so instead, she died from the cold