Baby girl delivered after Palestinian mother killed in Israeli airstrike improving in hospital, doctors say

A baby girl delivered from a Palestinian woman who was killed alongside her husband and daughter in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah is stabilizing in hospital after her critical first days, according to her family and doctors.

The baby was delivered via emergency caesarean 10 weeks premature and weighing three pounds, nine ounces on Saturday, in the aftermath of an attack in the southern Gaza city.

“She is in Emirati hospital and now alive, but she lost all her family. Her father, her mother, her sister,” said Dr. Bassem Al-Hams, the laparoscopic surgeon who delivered the baby, told CBC News in an interview Tuesday.

The girl’s mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, was 30 weeks pregnant when she died. Her husband and older daughter, Malak, were also among those killed.

The baby’s paternal grandmother, Ahlam Al-Kurdi, said an excited Malak had wanted to name her new sister Roh — meaning “soul” or “spirit” in Arabic. Her surviving family named the newborn first for her mother, with the second name as the one her sister chose.

“We named her Sabreen Roh, so we can make her mom happy and the girl happy,” said Al-Kurdi, 60.

“She will be cherished.”

Four days after her birth, the baby was being cared for in an incubator alongside other infants at the Emirati field hospital in Rafah. The words “The baby of the martyr Sabreen Al-Sakani” were written in blue ink on a piece of tape across her chest.

Al-Hams, the surgeon, said he found the girl’s mother after the airstrike on Saturday in the “red” area of the hospital — a ward reserved for people in grave condition. The surgeon said he initially thought the woman’s swollen abdomen was the result of injuries sustained in the blast, but quickly identified her pregnancy.

“We have to do a rapid decision. The decision was to save the baby,” said Al-Hams, 32.

A Reuters journalist filmed the birth. Footage showed the doctor pulling the pale, limp baby from her mother’s womb as the surrounding crowd shouts for him to mind the infant’s head. Another doctor, identified by Al-Hams as a pediatrician, whisks the baby away in a small, patterned towel.

Dr. Mohamed Nasr, doctor in the nursery department at Emirati hospital, is seen caring for the newborn baby on Wednesday. Nasr said the baby is breathing with the support of a CPAP machine, which delivers oxygen through small tubes in her nose. (Mohamed el Saife)

The mother was dead when the baby was born, Al-Hams said.

The infant has improved gradually over her first four days, according to doctors. She has been supported by a ventilator known as a CPAP machine, which delivers oxygen to premature babies through small tubes in their noses.

“It helps the lungs in developing and breathing and making the lungs better,” said Dr. Mohamed Nasr, doctor in the hospital’s nursery department.

“We hope to God that she recovers and we hand her over to her family and she can be in the place of her mom.”

The baby will stay in hospital for three to four weeks before she is released to her surviving family, Nasr said.

Dr. Bassem Al-Hams, 32, is seen on Wednesday describing the baby’s birth four days earlier. Al-Hams said he performed an emergency C-section to save the newborn after her mother was killed. (Mohamed el Saife)

There were more than 155,000 pregnant people and new mothers in Gaza as of April 4, according to the United Nations. More than 5,500 are due to deliver within the next month.

The UN said those mothers are facing “extreme challenges” accessing health care, with just three maternity hospitals remaining in the Gaza Strip. The lack of access leads to increased health risks during pregnancy and postpartum, the UN said.

More than half of the 2.3 million people in Gaza have fled to Rafah to escape Israel’s attacks, which have left much of the enclave in ruins as the war nears its seventh month. which leads to increased health risks during pregnancy and postpartum.

The latest conflict between Israel and Gaza broke out after a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 left 1,200 dead and saw more than 250 others taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The health ministry in Gaza said Israel’s subsequent assault has left more than 34,000 dead, with thousands more believed buried in the rubble and famine looming over those still alive.

Ahlam al-Kurdi, second from left, is the paternal grandmother of a newborn baby delivered after her mother was killed by an airstrike in Rafah on the weekend. (Mohamed el Saife)