One-year-old Mohammed Bassiouni died of exposure to the cold on Tuesday. It was his first birthday.
That night, as winter storms lashed Gaza with cold winds and torrential rain, his family was shivering in a battered tent in Deir al-Balah where they had been displaced after fleeing Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
“It was a night of rain and wind. We were up all night, his mother and I,” Mohammed’s father, Maher Bassiouni, told Drop Site. “At 4 a.m., the wind and rain calmed a little and me and his mother slept a bit. I woke up at 6 a.m. and I found the boy dead.” He spoke holding his son’s lifeless body wrapped in a purple blanket. “We belong to God and to him we shall return. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs. I have nothing more to tell you. He is one year old. Today is his birthday. January 13th is his birthday, the day he died.”
The family rushed Mohammed to Al-Aqsa Hospital, but it was too late. His tiny body, still in diapers, was kept in the hospital morgue before he was wrapped in a white shroud for burial. Mohammed is the seventh child to die from hypothermia since the onset of winter, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, including four since the beginning of the year—among them a baby just seven days old and a four-year-old girl. Another 25 Palestinians have been crushed to death as storms caused damaged buildings and walls to collapse on families seeking shelter inside or in tents nearby.
Israel’s continued strangulation of essential supplies during winter has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians shivering in the wet and cold and nearly three dozen dead. The genocidal war has displaced nearly the entire population and reduced Gaza to a broken landscape of rubble and collapsed structures. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now living in flimsy tents that provide little shelter from the elements. According to the UN, the heavy rains and flooding have rendered thousands of tents uninhabitable and placed nearly 800,000 people, almost 40 percent of the population, in flood-prone sites at heightened risk—leaving families exposed to the winter cold without blankets, mattresses, or heating. Hundreds of tents have simply blown away and makeshift shelters have been heavily damaged.
Winter Cold and Collapsing Buildings Kill Palestinians in Gaza as Israel Blocks Shelter Supplies
Netanyahu casts 2nd phase of Gaza truce deal as largely symbolic while Hamas welcomes move
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cast the U.S. announcement that the fragile ceasefire in Gaza would advance to its second phase as largely symbolic, raising questions about how its more challenging elements will be carried out.
Meanwhile, two Israeli airstrikes killed seven people in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said. A senior figure in the armed wing of Hamas was among those killed, a Hamas source said.
Neither the Israeli military nor Hamas immediately responded to requests for comment on the incident. Hamas condemned the strikes on the Al-Holy family, in a statement that did not mention Mohammed or his role in the group. It accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal in place since October, and of attempting to reignite the conflict.
_____
Questions also include the timing of deployment of international forces and the reopening of Gaza's southern Rafah border crossing, as well as concrete details about disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.
In an interview on Wednesday with the West Bank-based Radio Basma, Ali Shaath, the engineer and former Palestinian Authority official slated to head the committee, said he anticipated reconstruction and recovery to take roughly three years. He said it would start with immediate needs, such as shelter.
"If I bring bulldozers, and push the rubble into the sea, and make new islands [in the sea], new land, it is a win for Gaza and [we] get rid of the rubble," Shaath, a Gaza native, said.
Russian Assault Fails, 70 Troops Killed in Kharkiv Region as National Guard Raises Flag Over Kupyansk
Ukrainian troops from the National Guard’s 13th “Khartia” Brigade repelled a large-scale Russian assault in the Kharkiv region, killing about 70 Russian soldiers.
According to the brigade’s press service, over the course of the week, Russian troops have repeatedly tried to break through positions in its area of responsibility north of Kharkiv, but it said all assaults were repelled.
Kyiv Post was unable to independently verify the time and location of the footage, which shows Russian soldiers being targeted by drone-dropped munitions.
“Thanks to the coordinated actions of Khartia’s infantry, drone operators, artillery units, and other elements, the enemy’s attempt was unsuccessful. We continue to defend the Kharkiv region and keep Kharkiv secure,” the brigade said.
The repelled assault comes as Ukrainian forces retake control over the Kupyansk City Council building during efforts to lift the city’s blockade.
A federal judge dismisses the DOJ's effort to get voter data from California
The Trump administration on Thursday was dealt its first legal setback in its unprecedented effort to consolidate voter data traditionally held by states.
Federal district Judge David O. Carter dismissed a lawsuit in California that sought to give the Justice Department access to that state's unredacted voter file, which includes sensitive data like Social Security numbers and driver's license data. A district judge in Oregon also said in court Wednesday that he was tentatively planning to do the same there.
California and Oregon are two of 23 states, along with Washington, D.C., that have been sued by the Department of Justice for rebuffing requests for voter data. All states are led by Democrats, or were lost by President Trump in the 2020 election.
The DOJ has argued that it needs unfettered access to the state voter lists to determine whether states are maintaining their voter lists in accordance with federal law. State officials from both major political parties, however, have noted that the federal government has never had access to this data before, and expressed worries about what else the federal government could use the data for.
The medal may be in Trump’s hands, but peace prize is not his, Nobel officials say
In an apparent attempt to win back Donald Trump’s favour, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters she had “presented” her gold Nobel peace prize medal to the US president during a private meeting at the White House on Thursday.
Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Nicolás Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. It was not immediately clear whether Trump had accepted the gift.
Trump later wrote his Truth Social platform: “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
It is unclear if Trump retained the medal, and he did not post an image of it.
While Trump expressed gratitude to have been presented the medal he’s long pined for, the Nobel Peace Center has reiterated its rules of possession several times in recent days.
“Once a Nobel prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” Nobel organizers wrote in a 9 January press release. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”
Judge allows offshore windfarm halted by Trump to resume construction
A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would probably kill the project in a matter of days.
District judge Carl J Nichols, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the merits of the government’s order to suspend the project. He faulted the government for not responding to key points in Empire Wind’s court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure.
Norwegian company Equinor owns Empire Wind. Spokesperson David Schoetz said they welcomed the court’s decision and would continue to work in collaboration with authorities. It is the second developer to prevail in court against the administration this week.
The Trump administration froze five big offshore wind projects on the east coast days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Trump has targeted offshore wind from his first days back in the White House, most recently calling windfarms “losers” that lose money, destroy the landscape and kill birds.
Death of man at ICE camp could be investigated as homicide after examiner’s report
The death of a man who was being held at a federal detention camp in Texas in early January may be investigated as a homicide after the local medical examiner reportedly found the preliminary cause was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression”.
Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in July last year, was pronounced dead on 3 January. He had been in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso.
In a press release about his death, the agency claimed he died after “experiencing medical distress” and said his cause of death was under investigation. The Department of Homeland Security had previously highlighted Lunas Campos’s arrest as one of the “worst of the worst” a category used by DHS to trumpet what they claim as victories of Trump’s mass deportation campaign. He has convictions of child sexual abuse, possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault.
Three US citizens sue Trump with the ACLU over encounters with ICE agents
The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over the Trump administration’s immigration operation in Minneapolis describes a mass “racial profiling campaign” resulting in “an unprecedented level of violence” against Minnesotans of color.
“People targeted by ICE have been handcuffed, tackled, and beaten by federal agents. Agents have broken car windows, dragged people from their cars, and used pepper spray and tear gas against compliant, non-violent people,” the lawsuit reads.
The three plaintiffs in the case, who are all US citizens, are Mubashir Khalif Hussen, a 20-year-old Somali man who grew up in the United States after his family came to the country as refugees, Mahamed Eydarus, a 25-year-old Somali-American and Javier Doe, a 22-year-old Hispanic man.
On December 10, 2025, Hussen encountered immigration agents while on his lunch break. The lawsuit describes agents pushing him into a restaurant, dragging him outside, placing him in a headlock, and then driving him to an ICE field office where he was denied medical assistance and water – despite Hussen’s repeated statements that he was a US citizen.driving him to an ICE field office where he was denied medical assistance and water – despite Hussen’s repeated statements that he was a US citizen.
Trump administration restores funding to Planned Parenthood, other groups after lawsuit
The Trump administration has agreed to unfreeze millions in federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other family planning groups, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The union filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 13, citing the restoration of funds.investigation, citing potential violations of federal civil rights laws. In response, the ACLU sued the administration over the cuts.
The union filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 13, citing the restoration of funds.
“We are relieved all of our members now have access to their promised funds, but we know the fight for contraceptive access in this country goes on. We will continue to stand up for our members and the essential care they provide to millions of individuals,” Clare Coleman, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said in a statement.
The Trump administration ultimately paused 22 federal Title X grants, jeopardizing care for 842,000 patients across the country, according to the ACLU.
Page 1 of 1168
