GAZA: A new born baby saved from her dying mother’s womb in the war-shattered Gaza Strip has died, her uncle told Western media on Friday.
Sabreen al-Ruh was the only surviving member of her immediate family after she was delivered by Caesarean section while her mother lay critically wounded from an Israeli air strike at the weekend.
Officials from the Emirati hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah said in a statement that despite their tiring efforts to keep her alive, the premature baby died on Thursday.
Her uncle Rami al-Sheikh told AFP that officials from hospital had called to say “her condition had worsened and they couldn’t save her”.
“The baby passed away to join her family,” he said. “I went and completed all the relevant procedures at the hospital today, and brought the girl’s body home.” Adding that “I opened her father Shukri’s grave and buried her there,”.
According to eye Witnesses the victims’ family house in Rafah was hit by an Israeli strike, killing at least 19 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Al-Ruh’s father and sister were among those killed.
Israel Targeting Children, Women
After the attack, Al-Ruh’s mother Sabreen al-Sakani reached the emergency unit at the city’s Kuwaiti hospital in a critical condition with wounds to the head and abdomen, and passed away shortly after the baby was delivered. Doctors had described the baby’s survival as a “miracle” earlier this week.
Al-Ruh had been transferred to the Emirati field hospital, being established last December to cope with the besieged Palestinian territory’s mounting toll of injured and dead.
Israel has since threatened to invade Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, despite international criticism.
The war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel started when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to Israeli media, the attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli military started offensive in Gaza while killing at least 34,356 people, most of them women and children. The international community has condemned the Israeli government time and again for targeting innocent civilians particularly women and children.
