A little Palestinian girl, rescued from the womb of her mother Sabreen Al-Sakani, killed in an Israeli strike with her husband Shukri Jouda and daughter Malak, rests in an incubator at the Emirati hospital in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip. , April 21.
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A little Palestinian girl, rescued from the womb of her mother Sabreen Al-Sakani, killed in an Israeli strike with her husband Shukri Jouda and daughter Malak, rests in an incubator at the Emirati hospital in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip. , April 21.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — There was a glimmer of hope in Rafah last weekend, when doctors were able to save a baby girl from her mother’s womb after Saturday night’s airstrikes killed her entire family .
Her mother was dead by the time she was brought to the field hospital, but doctors were able to quickly operate on her outside of her main facility, performing an emergency C-section to remove her baby.
The mother, Sabreen al Sakani, was 30 weeks pregnant. The baby, two months premature, was given an oxygen mask that engulfed his tiny face and transported to a larger hospital with incubators.
A doctor holds a newborn baby after his cesarean delivery at a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, in this still image from video recorded on April 20.
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The only survivor of her family
The baby’s mother, father Shukri Jouda, and little sister Malak – angel in Arabic – were also killed in the Israeli airstrike that hit the family home in Rafah, according to information from the hospital morgue and the extended family.
The day after the strike that claimed the family’s lives, the baby’s uncle, Rami al-Sheikh, told cameras he was ready to take care of her. “I’m going to hug her and take care of her,” he was quoted as saying in a Sky News report.
But Dr. Mohammed Salama, who heads the neonatal department at Emirati hospital in Rafah, where the infant was being treated, told NPR that she died Thursday, despite his team’s best efforts to save her.
The baby’s uncle told The Associated Press that the girl, named Sabreen after her mother, was buried next to her father on Thursday. She was five days old.
Intensification of airstrikes on Rafah kills mainly women and children
The newborn’s death comes amid mounting Israeli airstrikes on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the nearly seven-month war that erupted on Oct. 7 with a deadly attack of Hamas against Israel which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza health officials.
The Israeli military says it is planning an attack on Rafah to target Hamas, but it has not said when that might take place. The Biden administration says it is concerned about the toll an offensive in Rafah could have on civilians, even if they are told to evacuate.
Israel said Hamas battalions were operating in Rafah. The Israeli military did not respond to NPR’s inquiries about why the Jouda family home, among others, was targeted there.
Morgue records and survivors indicate that most of those killed in last weekend’s airstrikes on Rafah were children, including 16 from one family.
Over the past five weeks, more than 230 people have been killed in airstrikes in Rafah, with three-quarters of the victims being women and children, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
The United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, says more than 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7, and thousands more are orphaned and injured. According to UN Women, on average, two mothers have been killed per hour in Gaza since the start of the war.
Anas Baba reported from Rafah. Aya Batrawy reported from Dubai.
Aya Batrawy reported from Dubai. Anas Baba reported from Rafah.
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