Extract from ABC News
Maher Al-Basyouni's baby Mohammed died from hypothermia on his first birthday. (ABC News)
As torrential rain lashed Maher Al-Basyouni's tent in northern Gaza, he and his wife took turns to shield their 12-month-old baby Mohammed from the freezing winds.
"That night the wind and rain were very strong, the cold was intense, the storm was extremely hard for us," Mr Al-Basyouni told the ABC.
"I stayed awake with Mohammed until about four in the morning and I wrapped him in whatever I could find."
Mohammed had been sick with the flu, and, despite their desperate efforts, didn't survive the night.
Maher Al-Basyouni and his children outside their tent in Gaza. (ABC News)
"[Mohammed] was in his mother's arms," he said.
"At 6am his mother woke me and said he had died. Death was faster than us. The cold was faster."
Mohammed died from hypothermia on his first birthday, a day his parents hoped would be one of celebration.
Instead it was marked by a tragic loss.
"Two days before Mohammed's birthday, we were trying to prepare something to celebrate and make him happy despite the harsh conditions," Mr Al-Basyouni said.
"A box of juice, a small cake, anything.
"His birthday coincided with his sister's birthday. In these bleak circumstances we're living in, his cousins were around — four children together here in the one tent."
The Basyouni family are one of hundreds of thousands of Gazans living in flimsy tents across the enclave.
And many distressed parents like them are battling the fierce winter elements to try to keep their children alive through the night.
Doctor warns of sharp rise in child deaths
Mohammed is one of 10 children to have died from severe cold this winter in Gaza, according to Palestinian Health Authorities.
Doctor Mahmoud Mahani from Gaza's Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said there has been a sharp rise in child deaths due to severe cold and exposure among children living in tents.
Doctor Mahmoud Mahani from Gaza's Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. (ABC News)
"Recently, there have been many cases … Children have died because they were not protected from intense cold in tents and this leads to hypothermia," he told the ABC.
"Currently, in paediatric departments, there are nearly 90 to 100 admissions, cases of chest infections and colds, which can lead to child deaths."
About 1.5 million Gazans — three-quarters of the population — are living in tents or makeshift shelters, after Israel destroyed their homes during its war with Hamas.
Parents 'don't sleep' on storm nights
As overnight temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius in the war-ravaged strip, parents of young children fear what the evening brings.
"On storm nights, people in tents don't sleep. It's an emergency to protect your children," Mr Al-Basyouni said.
"For two years we've lived like this, you follow weather alerts, tension rises, you are anxious."
Maher Al-Basyouni's baby, Mohammed, died from hypothermia after a freezing night in Gaza. (ABC News)
Mohammed and his family of five have been forced to move 12 times during the war.
"I had a three-storey house; each floor was 160 square metres, furnished, fully equipped with central heating, lighting, everything you'd want," he said.
"Imagine ending up in a tent like this that contains everything I own now."
Humanitarian aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a lack of shelter supplies entering Gaza.
The Al-Basyouni family are like many other Palestinians living in a tent in Gaza. (ABC News)
COGAT, the Israeli military agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries, told the ABC nearly half a million shelter kits have been handed out in Gaza.
"Contrary to the claims, over the past several months COGAT, in coordination with aid organisations and the international community, has carried out extensive preparations for the winter season," a statement said.
"Accordingly, the entry of more than 490,000 family tents, sheets, and tarpaulins for residents of the Gaza Strip was coordinated."
Pressure mounts on Israel's PM to push ceasefire into second phase
The more than two-year long war between Israel and Hamas has led to concerning death tolls for women and children, according to human rights reports.
There have been 2,600 miscarriages and 220 pregnancy-related deaths in Gaza, according to two recent reports by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
A child walks past tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza. (AP: Abdel Kareem Hana)
UNICEF said more than 100 children had been killed in Gaza since a fragile ceasefire brokered by the US came into force in October.
While air strikes and gunfire have slowed, they have not stopped and the humanitarian disaster for most Gazans has endured.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of ceasefire violations.
Palestinian Health Authorities said more than 490 people have been killed and 1,300 people have been injured in Gaza since the ceasefire was announced.
The deaths come as pressure mounts on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push the ceasefire into its second phase, after the last hostage taken in the October 7 attack by Hamas was returned to Israel and laid to rest.
A key element of the second phase is getting Hamas to lay down its weapons as well as the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to allow Palestinians who left during the war to return, and those in Gaza to leave.
The World Health Organisation estimates 18,000 Palestinians are waiting to leave Gaza for medical treatment, but Israel has only agreed to a limited number of pedestrians per day.
'We don't know what's required of us'
Mr Al-Basyouni said he wants hope and a future for his children.
"We hope to secure a life for our remaining children but how?" he said.
"Holding peace talks and negotiations and management councils, wanting everyone to leave Gaza — we don't know what's required of us."
Mr Al-Basyouni says storms bring anxiety for him and his wife as they fear for their children. (ABC News)
"The suffering should have never reached this point."
For Mr Al-Basyouni two years of war has taken nearly everything from him.
"I lost my brother's children and their mother, when their house was hit by random shelling," he said.
"My wife's entire family was killed: her mother, her brother, her siblings, her aunt.
"Eleven people, all killed in the house, I buried them all with my own hands.
"And now, my son — the cruel irony."
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