They show how the blockade's effects reach into the most domestic routines, turning the preparation of a meal into a mortal risk.
Two Palestinian infants have died of severe burns after a fire tore through a displacement tent in Al Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to TRT World. Habiba Mohammed Zanoun, two months old, and Aseel Abu Suhayban, seven months old, died on Saturday morning at Nasser Medical Complex, which identified them. Both had been admitted to intensive care after flames broke out on Friday afternoon while relatives were gathered at the tent. Habiba was due for her two-month vaccinations on the day she died.
Sources quoted by Anadolu said the fire started while food was being cooked inside the tent. They said severe shortages of cooking gas and basic supplies force displaced families to prepare meals over open fires. Aseel's mother rushed to save her daughter and suffered burns; she was also taken to hospital. The girls' grandmother told Anadolu that her daughter had come to visit the family when the fire erupted, and that Habiba was her daughter's baby. Neither infant could withstand the severity of her injuries. "Why is all this happening to us?" she asked. "Every day there are accidents, bombings and fires, and people are dying in so many ways." She added that the family had lived like this for three years, amid displacement, anguish and pain.
The blaze was one of three fires reported on Friday in displacement tents in central and southern Gaza, according to the same sources. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned in June that cooking inside tents is a leading cause of fires. It said blankets, old fabric, cardboard and plastic sheeting used to reinforce shelters let flames spread rapidly and make fires harder to control. OCHA also reported that Israeli authorities denied entry on 26 August and 2 September to a previously approved shipment through the Egyptian corridor, which contained 36,960 pieces of timber and 660 emergency shelter kits.
The Gaza Government Media Office has said more than 800,000 displaced Palestinians live in tents unfit for human habitation, and estimates that 162,000 of Gaza's 270,000 displacement tents need immediate replacement. Those figures are the office's own estimates and have not been independently verified in the material available here. What the report does establish is the chain of causation officials and aid agencies describe: restricted supplies of cooking gas push families towards open flames, and the materials of makeshift shelter carry fire quickly through crowded tent clusters.
The deaths matter beyond the grief of one family. They show how the blockade's effects reach into the most domestic routines, turning the preparation of a meal into a mortal risk, and how the shelter shortage compounds the danger. The denial of timber and shelter kits, as reported by OCHA, bears directly on the conditions in which these fires start and spread. Not yet known are the precise circumstances of Friday's three fires, whether any other injuries occurred, or how the Israeli authorities respond to the OCHA account of the refused shipments. The report does not say whether the fires are being investigated or whether any compensation or rehousing has been offered to the families affected.
