Two infant girls die in Gaza tent fire amid displacement crisis

Infants die in tent blaze

Habiba Mohammed Zanoun was scheduled to receive her two-month vaccinations on Saturday morning at a clinic in southern Gaza, but the infant died in intensive care instead, medical officials said, one of two babies killed when flames engulfed a family tent in al-Mawasi west of Khan Younis on Friday afternoon. Nasser Medical Complex identified the victims as two-month-old Habiba and seven-month-old Aseel Abu Suhayban — both of whom suffered severe burns in the blaze that broke out while relatives were gathered inside the crowded shelter. Family members made desperate attempts to rescue the infants from the flames, but both girls were admitted to intensive care and died the following morning, according to medical sources.

The girls' grandmother, who declined to give her name, told Anadolu that her daughter had brought Habiba to visit family in the tent when the fire suddenly erupted during the Friday gathering. Aseel's mother rushed to pull her daughter from the flames and suffered burns herself, requiring hospitalization, while Habiba — her mother's only baby — succumbed to injuries on the very day she was due for her vaccinations. The grandmother said neither infant could withstand the severity of her injuries.

'Why is all this happening to us?'

"Why is all this happening to us?" the grandmother asked. "Every day there are accidents, bombings and fires, and people are dying in so many ways." She said the family had spent three years living amid displacement, anguish and pain.

Sources told Anadolu that the fire started while food was being cooked inside the tent, one of three blazes reported Friday in displacement camps across central and southern Gaza. Severe shortages of cooking gas and basic supplies under Israel's blockade have forced displaced families to prepare meals over open flames inside shelters built from highly flammable materials, they said, transforming an everyday necessity into a lethal risk.

Cooking fires stalk displacement camps

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned in June that cooking inside displacement tents was a leading cause of fires, noting that blankets, old fabric, cardboard and plastic sheeting used to reinforce shelters allow flames to spread rapidly. Israeli authorities denied entry on Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 to a previously approved shipment through the Egyptian corridor containing 36,960 pieces of timber and 660 emergency shelter kits, OCHA reported.

The Gaza Government Media Office previously reported that more than 800,000 displaced Palestinians were living in tents unfit for human habitation, estimating that 162,000 of Gaza's 270,000 displacement tents needed immediate replacement. The grandmother, mourning the loss of two grandchildren, appealed to the world to pay attention to Gaza's displaced families and help end their suffering.