The baby that doctors in Gaza rescued from his dead mother’s womb in Rafah has died after spending five days in an incubator.
The premature baby had been rescued from the womb of his mother who had been killed a short time earlier during an Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The little girl, whom her uncle had named Ruh – meaning “soul” – died in a hospital in Gaza on Thursday after his health deteriorated and doctors were unable to do anything. Since Saturday’s bombing, the little girl’s house was also destroyed on the spot her parents and her 4-year-old sister were killed.
The baby’s mother, Sabrin Al-Shakani, was seriously injured when her home in Rafah, in the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip, was hit in an Israeli attack on Saturday night. Her husband, Shukri, and their three-year-old daughter, Malak, were killed. Sabrin, who was 30 weeks pregnant, was rushed to the Emirates hospital in Rafah. She succumbed to her injuries, but doctors managed to save her baby, who was delivered by caesarean section. However, the infant suffered respiratory problems and had a weak immune system, said Dr Mohamed Salama, head of the emergency department at the neonatal unit at the Emirates Hospital, who cared for Rooh.
“I and other doctors tried to save her, but she died. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,” he told Reuters by phone. “She was born while her respiratory system was not fully developed and her immune system was very weak and this is what led to her death. She became a martyr like her family,” said Salama. “(The baby’s) grandmother begged me and the doctors to take care of her because she could keep the memory of her mother, father and sister alive, but it was God’s will that she die,” said Salama.
She was buried next to her father, according to the Associated Press. “My brother’s family was completely exterminated, erased from civilization, no trace of them remained,” the girl’s uncle told the media.
At least 34,356 Palestinians have been killed and 77,368 injured in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since October 7, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry announced today.
With information from the Associated Press, Reuters
