Doctors in Gaza on Sunday delivered a baby from the womb of a Palestinian woman who was killed along with her husband and daughter in an Israeli attack on the city of Rafah. During Israel’s war in Gaza, more than one million people fled the city of Rafah.
A Reuters reporter recorded the birth of the child on video. In the video, after she came out of her mother Sabreen al-Sakani, doctors performed artificial respiration on her. The child looked pale and Weak and looking lifeless.
“The biggest tragedy is: even if the child survives, she is born an orphan,” Dr. Mohammed Salama, director of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Emirates Hospital in Rafah, told Reuters.
Dr Salama told Reuters the baby was born 10 weeks premature and weighed 3 pounds. He said her mother had died when she was born. Instead of a name, doctors wrote “Child of martyr Sabrin Sakani” on the tape on her chest.
The baby’s uncle, Rami al-Sheikh, told a Reuters video reporter that her sister Malak wanted to name her Rouh, Arabic for “soul” . Malak was also killed in the strike.
He said the family were “ordinary civilians”.
“My brother is a barber and used to work in the shop with me,” Mr Sheikh said of the baby’s father. “They are both happy people and little girl Malak is delighted to have her sister come into the world.”
Dr Salama said the baby had been in critical condition since birth but now, apart from some respiratory issues, her condition is stable. She will stay in the hospital for three to four weeks, and then doctors will decide who to send the baby home.
“The hope is that once her dyspnea improves, she will need to breastfeed,” Dr. Salama said. “She was stripped of everything – her mother, her milk. Some substitutions could be made, but nothing could replace her mother.”
