Two infant girls die after tent fire in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, as cooking-gas shortages force families to cook over open flames
Two infant girls have died of severe burns after a fire tore through a displacement tent in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, on Friday afternoon, medical officials at Nasser Medical Complex said, in one of three tent fires reported that day.
Two infant girls have died of severe burns after a fire tore through a displacement tent in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medical officials said on Saturday, turning a family gathering into a tragedy that has again exposed the dangers facing displaced families living in makeshift shelters. Nasser Medical Complex identified the victims as two-month-old Habiba Mohammed Zanoun and seven-month-old Aseel Abu Suhayban, both of whom were admitted to intensive care and died on Saturday morning.
The fire broke out on Friday afternoon while relatives were gathered inside the tent, according to medical sources cited by Anadolu news agency and reported by TRT World, ANews and other outlets. Sources told Anadolu that the blaze started while food was being cooked inside the tent. Family members made desperate attempts to rescue the two infants from the flames, but both suffered severe burns. Aseel's mother also suffered burns while trying to rescue her daughter and was hospitalised.
For Habiba's family, the timing added a particular poignancy. She had been due to receive her routine two-month vaccinations on Saturday morning at a clinic in southern Gaza. Instead, her family mourned her death alongside that of Aseel, whose family had gathered with relatives in the crowded shelter in al-Mawasi, an area designated as a humanitarian zone where large numbers of displaced people have sought shelter in tents.
The blaze was one of three fires reported on Friday in displacement tents in central and southern Gaza, according to sources cited in the reporting. That pattern matters because it shows the incident was not an isolated accident but part of a recurring risk in camps where families cook, heat and light shelters built from highly flammable materials. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned in June that cooking inside 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.
The underlying cause, according to the reporting, is shortage. Severe shortages of cooking gas and basic supplies under Israel's blockade have forced displaced families to prepare meals over open flames inside their shelters, transforming an everyday necessity into a lethal risk. Palestinian journalist Hani Alshaer, reporting on the incident, noted that displaced people are sheltering in tightly clustered tents that lack the most basic elements of safety and protection, and that restrictions on fuel and cooking gas have pushed families towards primitive and dangerous methods of lighting fires for cooking and heating.
The deaths came on a day of continued violence elsewhere in Gaza, despite a ceasefire agreed in October 2025. Three Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks or died from earlier injuries on Saturday, according to the Palestine Chronicle, which cited Quds News Network, while shelling and gunfire were reported across the strip, including shelling that hit the Nuseirat refugee camp and killed a teacher, Diaa Abu al-Rous, according to al-Awda Hospital. Gaza's Health Ministry reported 1,580 Palestinians killed and 5,711 injured since the October 2025 ceasefire, a figure that underlines how fragile the truce has remained on the ground.
The tent fire deaths also sit within a wider pattern of similar incidents. Displacement camps across Gaza have repeatedly witnessed fires causing casualties, including among children, and leaving others with severe burns, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency, which reported the same two deaths on Saturday. Each incident follows a similar script: a cooking fire, flammable shelter materials, crowded conditions, and limited access to emergency care or firefighting equipment.
Medical care for burn victims in Gaza is severely constrained. Hospitals, including Nasser Medical Complex, operate under shortages of medicines, equipment and fuel, and the two infants, despite being admitted to intensive care, could not be saved. Their deaths highlight not only the immediate danger of open-flame cooking but also the limited capacity of a health system under prolonged strain to treat the most severe burn injuries, particularly in very young children.
The reporting of the girls' ages and names has varied slightly between outlets, a reminder of the difficulty of verifying details from a conflict zone. TRT World, ANews and Yeni Safak give Habiba's age as two months and Aseel's as seven months, while some other outlets give slightly different ages, but all agree on the essential facts: two infant girls, one tent fire in al-Mawasi on Friday afternoon, severe burns, and death in hospital on Saturday morning. The cause of the blaze, beyond the cooking-fire account given to Anadolu, has not been independently established in every report, with the Times of Israel noting that the cause remained unclear in Palestinian reports.
For the families in al-Mawasi, the immediate question is practical and urgent: how to cook, stay warm and keep children safe in shelters that were never designed for either. Until cooking gas and safer shelter materials reach displaced families at scale, humanitarian workers warn, the risk of further tent fires will remain, and the deaths of Habiba and Aseel will stand as a stark illustration of how displacement itself, quite apart from direct military action, continues to claim young lives in Gaza.
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