Baby in Gaza saved from womb of mother killed in Israeli strike

A baby girl was rescued from the womb of a Palestinian woman, who was killed along with her husband and their 4-year-old daughter, in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday at their home in Rafah.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) targeted two houses, which claimed 18 lives, including 13 children from a single family.

The family was among the 2.3 million seeking refuge amidst a relentless military offensive in Rafah. Their bodies were transported to Kuwaiti Hospital, where paramedics discovered that the deceased woman was 30 weeks pregnant.

Doctors successfully saved a baby delivered from his mother's womb after an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah, Gaza, which also killed his parents and sister.
The mother was in her ninth month of pregnancy at the time of the strike. pic.twitter.com/0XZl66mcYx

— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) April 21, 2024

Delivered by C-section and weighing only 1.4 kg (3.09 lb), the baby girl is in stable condition and showing steady improvement, as reported by Dr Mohammed Salama, her attending doctor.

The orphaned premature baby is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of an Emirati hospital, where a tape around her chest reads, “The martyr Sabreen al-Sakani’s baby.” She is being cared for by her paternal grandmother.

Women in Gaza have been bearing the brunt of Israeli genocide, facing not only a lack of food and safety but also inadequate sanitary facilities and C-sections performed without anesthesia.

According to UN Women, "More than one million Palestinian women and girls in Gaza have limited access to food and safe water, leading to the spread of disease in deplorable living conditions."

"Six months into the conflict, 10,000 Palestinian women in Gaza have lost their lives, including an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned," it added.

Meanwhile, women who have survived Israeli bombardment find themselves widowed or struggling with displacement and starvation, as Israeli forces have crippled the healthcare system and halted food supplies from entering the enclave.