Press Release
The Freezing to Death of Babies, and the Starvation and Slaughter of Children is not Enough to Stop the Genocide in Gaza!

On the 30^th December, it was reported that a 6^th baby had frozen to death in Gaza within a fortnight due to the freezing conditions being endured by Palestinian refugees in makeshift tents, displaced from their homes due to the relentless bombardment of the Strip by the Jewish occupation. One month old Ali al-Batran died a day after his twin brother, Jumaa al-Batran, in Deir el-Balah. Their father, Yahya Muhammad al-Batran, said that Jumaa had been discovered with his head as “cold as ice”. Nariman, the mother of 20-day old Sila Mahmoud al-Fassih, who also died from hypothermia, described finding her baby blue and biting her tongue with blood coming out of her mouth. Over 1.6 million Gazans have been forced into makeshift shelters, living in flimsy tents that offer little protection from the bitterly cold winter weather. Furthermore, the Jewish entity’s brutal blockade of the Strip, preventing the entry of winter clothes, blankets and fuel; the cutting off of electricity; and the destruction of much of Gaza’s electricity infrastructure has compounded the unbearable living conditions of the people. Newborn babies have also been discharged from incubators early due to lack of capacity, fuel shortages and the destruction of hospitals. All this is alongside the crippling levels of starvation being suffered by Gaza’s children due to the blockade of food and other essentials. A study published in December 2023 sponsored by the War Child Alliance Charity, found that 96% of children in Gaza feel that death is imminent, and nearly half of them wished to die due to the unimaginable levels of trauma they have endured. Over 17,400 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7^th, 2023 – equivalent to 1 child killed every 30 minutes. Bragi Gudbrandsson, Vice Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, stated, “The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history…I don’t think we have seen before a violation that is so massive as we’ve seen in Gaza.”

O Muslims! Do you not see that even this historical scale of suffering and slaughter of Gaza’s children is not enough to shake the conscience of a single government under this current world order to end this genocide? Is it not clear that there is no state today that genuinely cares for the sanctity of Muslim life or has the political will to stand for the interests of the Muslims and defend them? Do you not see that every human rights, women’s rights and children’s rights law and convention has been rendered meaningless with regards to protecting the women and children of Gaza, within an impotent world order in which the major powers have enabled the murderous Jewish entity to commit every crime imaginable with impunity and without restriction!? Do you not bear rage towards your regimes who stand idle while Palestinian children starve, freeze and are slaughtered?!!

O Muslim Armies! None of these horrors that you witness in Gaza will end until you take a stance and rise to your duty of defending your Ummah and give your Nussrah (material support) for the establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) state based upon the method of the Prophethood which your Messenger (saw) described as the guardian and shield of the Muslims, for it is the only state which has the political will to mobilise its army to liberate every inch of Palestine from this brutal occupation. Ending this genocide is upon you! And every day that you delay in fulfilling your Islamic obligation of giving your support to the establishment of the Khilafah, the suffering of the children of Gaza only intensifies! So make this month of Rajab in which Al-Quds was liberated by Salahuddin al-Ayyubi from the crusader occupation, a source of inspiration for you to replicate this great victory by supporting the establishment of the second Khilafah Rashidun and liberating Palestine from this Jewish occupation! Allah (swt) says:

[وَمَا لَكُمْ لاَ تُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاء وَالْوِلْدَانِ الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْ هَـذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ الظَّالِمِ أَهْلُهَا وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ وَلِيًّا وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ نَصِيرًا]

“And what is the matter with you that you fight not in the Cause of Allah and for the oppressed among men, women and children who say, “Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself a protector and appoint for us from Yourself a helper?””[An-Nisa: 75].

Women’s Section
in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir