Gaza’s Babies Are Freezing to Death While the World Watches

In the rubble-strewn enclaves of Gaza, winter has become a death sentence for the most vulnerable. Babies, infants, and children are succumbing to the unrelenting cold, their fragile lives extinguished in a region trapped by conflict, deprivation, and international paralysis. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), delivered a chilling message this week: the people of Gaza are freezing to death.

Lazzarini’s warning is not just another bureaucratic lament. It is a call to confront the inhumane conditions that have gripped Gaza under Israel’s ongoing military operations. Blankets, mattresses, and other essential winter supplies sit just beyond Gaza’s borders, blocked by bureaucratic delays and political stonewalling. Meanwhile, families huddle together in bombed-out buildings with no heat, no electricity, and nowhere to turn.

Winter has always been harsh in Gaza, but this year’s conditions are catastrophic. The destruction of infrastructure and housing has left hundreds of thousands without shelter. Even those who have managed to find some semblance of refuge face freezing nights without the basics required to survive. Lazzarini’s statement lays bare the tragic reality: children are dying not from airstrikes, but from neglect and exposure.

The hunger crisis compounds the misery. The World Food Program (WFP) has managed to deliver only a fraction of the food required to sustain Gaza’s population. Hunger stalks the streets, amplifying the suffering caused by the cold. The WFP’s plea for safe and sustained humanitarian access underscores the urgent need for international intervention to restore even a modicum of normalcy to Gaza’s shattered existence.

But the problem is not just logistical; it is political. Supplies remain trapped not because of insurmountable obstacles, but because of deliberate choices. Humanitarian corridors are choked by restrictions and approvals that prioritize politics over human lives. The blockade, military strikes, and a lack of ceasefire agreements have turned Gaza into an open-air prison where survival itself has become a daily struggle.

The international community’s response has been depressingly predictable—statements of concern, calls for restraint, and half-hearted attempts at diplomacy. While world leaders express outrage, babies die of hypothermia. This dissonance between rhetoric and action is not just a moral failing; it is complicity in the suffering of Gaza’s population.