Gaza’s harsh conditions overshadow Board of Peace plan as world leaders gather in Davos
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian baby died from hypothermia on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, underscoring the grim humanitarian conditions in the territory as world leaders were gathering at a Swiss resort where President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan is high on the agenda.
Shaza Abu Jarad’s family found the 3-month-old on Tuesday morning in their tent in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.
“She was freezing, and dead,” the baby’s father, Mohamed Abu Jarad, told The Associated Press by phone after a funeral. “She died from cold.”
The man, who worked in Israel before the war, lives with his wife and their seven other children in a makeshift tent after their house was destroyed during the war.
The family took the girl to the Al-Ahly hospital where a doctor pronounced her dead from hypothermia, said her uncle, Khalid Abu Jarad. The Health Ministry confirmed that the baby died from hypothermia.
The family is among hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in tent camps and war-battered buildings in Gaza which experiences cold, wet winters, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) at night.
As Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave languish in displacement camps, Trump hopes to establish his new Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But the initiative, initially conceived to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, faces many questions over its membership and scope.
Israel on Tuesday began demolishing the Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, pressing ahead with its crackdown against a body it has long accused of anti-Israel bias.
Shaza Abu Jarad was the ninth child to die from severe cold this winter in Gaza, according to the strip’s health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
More than 100 children who have died since the start of the ceasefire in October — a figure that includes a 27-day-old girl who died from hypothermia over the weekend.
The ceasefire paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants and allowed a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, mainly food.
But residents say shortages of blankets and warm clothes remain, and there is little wood for fires. There’s been no central electricity in Gaza since the first few days of the war in 2023, and fuel for generators is scarce.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said recent biting cold and rainfall in Gaza were “ultimately a threat to survival.”
Trump’s Board of Peace was initially seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
But recent invitations sent to dozens of world leaders show that the body could have a far broader mandate of other global crises, potentially rivaling the U.N. Security Council.
Trump says the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict,” an indication that the body may not confine its work to Gaza.
The panel was part of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan that stopped the war in Gaza in October. Many countries, including Russia, said they received Trump’s invitation and were studying the proposal. France said it does not plan to join the board “at this stage.”
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz reported from Jerusalem.