No home, no work, no electricity and no way out.
The helpless condition of a father in Gaza with twin newborn boys.
One froze to death and the other is in an incubator battling sepsis.
“He was killed by neglect!” Yahia al Batran screams as he holds up the body of his 20-day-old son Juma’a.
Image: Yahia al Batran cradling his son’s body
The baby’s body is limp and his small face is pale.
His eyes are slightly open as his father yells in agony.
Four other babies have died from hypothermia in Gaza’s displacement camps in recent weeks.
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The UN’s humanitarian agency says nearly 90% of Gaza’s two million population has been displaced since the start of the Israel-Hamas war – close to half of them are children.
“I escaped the Israelis with my family to a school shelter. They bombed the school shelter so we took a bus to a football field to live in a tent,” says Yahia.
He tells Sky News: “My two nephews and three in-laws were killed. In the same month, God gave me twins. I named Juma’a after my brother and his twin, Ali, after my nephew.”
On the same day that Juma’a died of hypothermia, his twin brother Ali was admitted to hospital to be treated for sepsis.
Image: Yahia’s son Ali is in hospital struggling against sepsis
Image: Yahia al Batran standing over his surviving son in hospital
Yahia stands over his son’s incubator with trembling hands.
His surviving son’s life is reliant on the generators that run Gaza’s hospitals.
Israel has cut off electricity supply to Gaza and is raiding hospitals.
The IDF says the sieges are designed to root out terrorists hiding in healthcare facilities.
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International journalists are prohibited by Israel from entering Gaza and independently verifying these claims.
Fathers like Yahia have less than nothing left but everything to lose.
“Go and see these babies. See where they sleep – in the street, in the street. We put blankets and cover ourselves. We are eight people and have only four blankets,” he says.
Source : Sky News
