Palestinian mother in Gaza gives birth to quadruplets

Amid intensified war between Israel and Hamas, a pregnant woman in the war-torn Gaza had to walk for 5 kilometres to a hospital and gave birth to quadruplets.

Identified as Iman al-Masry, the woman was exhausted after giving birth to quadruplets in a hospital in southern Gaza, miles away from her home in the north of the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Days after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, the young woman fled the family home in Beit Hanun on foot with her three other children seeking safety.

They all together walked for five kilometres (three miles) to the Jabalia refugee camp, looking for a means of transport that would take them to Deir al-Balah further south.

“It affected my pregnancy,” added the 28-year-old mother, who gave birth by C-section on December 18 to daughters Tia and Lynn and sons Yasser and Mohammed.

“Mohammed weighs only one kilogramme (2.2 pounds). He cannot survive,” she said of the child she left behind at a hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

In the meantime, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has asked residents in many parts of central Gaza to leave immediately while its operations against Hamas continue.