Rafah, Gaza Strip: A baby born to her dying mother in a hospital in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes has died after just a few days of life, the doctor caring for her said on Friday.
The child was named Sabreen Al-Rooh. The second name means “soul” in Arabic.
His mother, Sabreen al-Saqani (al-Sheikh), was seriously injured when an Israeli strike on Saturday night hit the family home in Rafah, the southernmost city of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Her husband Shukri and their three-year-old daughter Malak died.
Sabreen al-Rouh, who was 30 weeks pregnant, was taken to the Emirati hospital in Rafah. She died of her wounds, but doctors were able to save the baby by delivering her by cesarean section.
However, Dr Mohammed Salama, head of the emergency newborn unit at the Emirati hospital who was caring for Sabreen Al-Rouh, said the baby suffered respiratory problems and a weakened immune system.
She died on Thursday and her tiny body was buried in a sandy cemetery in Rafah.
“I and other doctors tried to save him, but he died. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,” he told Reuters by phone.
“He was born when his respiratory system was not mature, and his immune system was very weak and this led to his death. Salama said, she joined her family as a martyr.
The six-month war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel denies that it is deliberately targeting civilians in its campaign to root out Hamas.
Much of Gaza has been devastated by Israeli bombardment and most of the enclave’s hospitals have been badly damaged, while those still operating lack electricity, drug sterilization equipment and other supplies.
Salama said, “(Sabrine al-Rouh’s) grandmother urged me and the doctors to take care of her because she would be the one who would keep the memories of her mother, father and sister alive, but it was God’s will that she died.”
Her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda, sat at her grave on Friday, mourning the death of the infant and others in the family.
He said he visited the hospital every day to check on Sabreen al-Rooh’s health. Doctors told them he had breathing problems, but they didn’t take it seriously until they got a call from the hospital that the baby had died.
“The spirit is gone, my brother, his wife and daughter are gone, his brother-in-law and the house that brought us together is gone,” he told Reuters.
“We have no memories left of our brother, his daughter or his wife. Everything was gone, even their photographs, their mobile phones, we could not find them,” said the uncle.