Gaza baby rescued from womb of mother killed in Israeli strike

CAIRO/ GAZA/ RAFA:

A baby girl was born from the womb of a Palestinian woman who was killed along with her husband and daughter by an Israeli attack in the Gaza city of Rafah, where 19 people died overnight in heavy strikes, Palestinian health officials said.

The dead, killed in strikes on two houses, include 13 children from one family, they said.

The baby, who weighed 1.4 kilograms (3.09 pounds) and was born by emergency caesarean section, was stable and gradually improving, said Mohamed Salama, a doctor who attended to her.

Her mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, was 30 weeks pregnant.

The baby was placed in an incubator at a hospital in Rafah along with another infant, with the words “Martyr Sabreen Al-Sakani’s baby” taped to her chest.

Sakani’s young daughter Malak, who was killed in the attack, wanted to name her new sister Rouh, which means spirit in Arabic, her uncle Rami Al-Sheikh said. “Little girl Malak was happy that her sister was coming into the world,” she said.

The baby would stay in hospital for three to four weeks, Dr Salama said. “After that, we will see how he will leave and where this child will go, to the family, to the aunt or uncle or grandfather. Here is the biggest tragedy. Even if this child survives, he was born an orphan,” he said. he said.

The 13 children were killed in an attack on the second home, owned by the Abdel Aal family, according to Palestinian health officials. Two women were also killed in that strike.

Asked about the casualties in Rafah, an Israeli military spokesman said several militant targets were hit in Gaza, including military compounds, launch sites and gunmen.

“Did you see one man among all those who were killed?” said Saqr Abdel Aal, a Palestinian man whose family was among the dead, mourning the body of a child in a white shroud.

“They are all women and children,” he said. “My whole identity has been wiped out, with my wife, my children and everyone.”

Mohammad al-Behairi said his daughter and grandson were still under the rubble. “It’s a feeling of sadness, depression, we have nothing else in this life to cry, what feeling will we have? When you lose your children, when you lose your closest people, what will your feelings be like?” he said.

“We are trapped”

More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have flocked to Rafah, seeking refuge from the Israeli offensive that has devastated much of Gaza over the past six months.

Israel is threatening a ground offensive in the region, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said fighters from the freedom fighter group Hamas must be eliminated to ensure Israel wins the war.

President Joe Biden urged Israel not to launch a large-scale attack on Rafah to avoid more Palestinian civilian casualties.

Palestinian health authorities say more than 34,000 people have been killed in Israel’s offensive, which began after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting another 253, according to Israeli estimates.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that Israeli military strikes killed 48 Palestinians and injured 79 others across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Management Agency said teams recovered 60 bodies from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, weeks after Israeli forces withdrew from the medical compound. This brought to 210 the number of bodies he had exhumed from hospital yards since April 12.

The agency said in a statement that there are still about 2,000 people missing under the rubble in Khan Younis and 1,000 in the central areas of the Gaza Strip, whose bodies could not be recovered due to a lack of heavy equipment and machinery to remove the rubble.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the larger of the two Palestinian territories, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israel said its soldiers opened fire on three Palestinians who attacked them, and the Palestinian health ministry said all three had died.

In recent days, violence has flared up in the West Bank.