Doctors save unborn baby in Gaza City after mother, father killed in Israeli strike

After their 3 children were killed in an Israeli walk out on their place in Gaza metropolis endure year, Diana and Omar Al-Rubai were just days away from the expected arrival of their baby when they were killed in an airstrike last week.

Medical teams rushed to save Diana. But after she died in hospital shortly after the strike, doctors performed an emergency C-section, said a pediatrician involved in the newborn's care, removing the boy from his mother's womb a week before his due date. 

"The doctors immediately rescued the baby and got him out," Madalla Al-Rubai said as she stood in the hospital on Friday, holding her orphaned newborn grandson. "We're very disheartened over the loss of [my] son, and daughter-in-law, but this is what God has written for us."

Al-Rubai said they named the baby Hamza, a name that his father had hoped to give him.

"His father was counting down the days and the clock until his son's birth, to be able to raise him."

Baby Hamza arrived at Al-Helou International Hospital suffering from oxygen deficiency as a result of his mother's critical condition following the airstrike and then her heart stopping while he was in utero, said Dr. Ziad Al-Masry, a pediatrician at the hospital. 

But he said the baby is relatively healthy and expected to soon be released from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

"This is not the first such case," Al-Masry said. "It has been a frequent occurrence for expectant mothers in their last trimester to be hit in strikes in the area that we're in.

"This causes a great danger to the pregnant mothers and their premature babies."

The Health Ministry in Gaza has appealed to the international community to protect Gaza City's hospitals, warning of "a humanitarian catastrophe that threatens the lives of thousands of patients and wounded individuals."

Doctors save premature baby from dead mother’s womb after parents killed in Israeli strike

Hamza's parents had been living in a tent shelter outside Al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave's largest medical facility, in northern Gaza after their home was destroyed in March 2024 in the airstrike that killed their daughter and two sons.

The couple died following an Israeli airstrike on the area at noon on Sept. 4, the boy's grandmother said.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people since it began nearly two years ago, according to the Health Ministry. It has destroyed swaths of the territory, reducing much of it to rubble and driving most Palestinians from their homes, displacing them multiple times. 

UNICEF estimates that 50,000 children have been killed or injured during the campaign.

The 55-year-old grandmother said five of her grandchildren have been killed in the war — two girls and three boys — as well as her two sons.

"He will live among us, his aunts and uncles," she said of Hamza. "May he come out like his father and uncles.

"What's this child's fault to have to live without a father or mother?" 

Much of Gaza City was laid to waste in the war's initial weeks in October-November 2023. About a million people lived there before the war, and hundreds of thousands are believed to have returned to live among the ruins, especially since Israel ordered people out of other areas and launched offensives elsewhere.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned residents of Gaza City to leave immediately, hours after Israel said it would ramp up airstrikes on the enclave. But many residents stayed in place, saying there is nowhere safe to flee in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces have been operating on Gaza City's outskirts since last month, and the military said it was in control of 40 per cent of the city already.

Israel destroys multiple Gaza City residential buildings as strikes intensify

Launching the new Israeli assault could complicate ceasefire efforts; hopes had been pinned on mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire that would avert Israel's plan, but after Israel targeted Hamas negotiators in Qatar Tuesday, the chances of avoiding the assault are even slimmer.

The October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israeli border communities triggering the war killed around 1,200 people, with the militant group seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Most of the hostages have been released in temporary ceasefires, but 50 hostages remain held by militants in Gaza, of which Israeli officials believe around 20 are still alive.

Senior Writer

---

---