A baby girl has been born via emergency caesarean section after her pregnant mother was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Sabreen al-Sakani, 30 weeks pregnant, died along with her husband and four-year-old daughter when their home was hit shortly before midnight on April 20.
Despite the efforts of doctors, Sabreen could not be saved but doctors worked to resuscitate the baby, gently tapping her chest to stimulate breathing.
"She was born in severe respiratory distress," Dr Mohammed Salama, who is the head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital in Rafah, told BBC.
The doctor wrote the words "the baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani" on a piece of tape and attached it to her body. She was then placed in an incubator.
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The baby would stay in hospital for three to four weeks, Dr Salama told news agencies on Sunday.
“After that we will see about her leaving, and where this child will go, to the family, to the aunt or uncle or grandparents. Here is the biggest tragedy: even if this child survives, she was born an orphan,” he said.
The baby’s grandmother Mirvat al-Sakani told the Associated Press that she would take care of her. “She is a memory of her father. I will take care of her,” she said.
“My son was also with them. My son became body parts and they have not found him yet. They have nothing to do with anything. Why are they targeting them? We don’t know why, how? We do not know.”
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According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began on Oct 7, with at least two-thirds of them being women and children.
In another Israeli airstrike in Rafah, 17 children and two women from an extended family were killed overnight. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have crowded into Rafah, seeking shelter from the Israeli offensive that has ravaged much of the Gaza Strip in the past six months.
