A Gaza hospital said on Saturday it had rescued a baby from the womb of its mother who had died from injuries sustained in an Israeli attack.
Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd, who was nine months pregnant, barely survived a night of missile attacks. More than 24 people, including six members of the same family, were killed in the missile attacks, according to rescue services in the Hamas-run area.
But by the time the Kurds reached Al-Awda hospital, she was “almost dead”, according to surgeon Akram Hussein.
Doctors were unable to save the mother, but they detected the baby’s heartbeat through an ultrasound.
The surgeon told AFP he immediately performed an emergency caesarean section and removed the foetus.
Raed al-Saudi, head of the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology department, said the newborn was initially in critical condition but stabilized after receiving oxygen and medical care.
He was placed in an incubator and transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
According to a medical official at al-Awda hospital, Kurd was one of three women and a child killed when an Israeli missile hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Her husband was also wounded in the attack on the family’s home.
Israel has not confirmed individual strikes, but a military statement said troops were “carrying out targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure sites” in central Gaza.
Israel has intensified its attacks in several parts of the region in line with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s orders to increase pressure on Hamas following attacks by Palestinian militants on southern Israel on October 7.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said a man was killed in a drone strike while cycling on a road near the southern town of Khan Younis.
Six people were killed in air strikes on two houses in Gaza City in the north, according to the civil protection agency and paramedics.
An Israeli military statement said “troops killed a number of terrorists in several separate encounters” and launched the operation at the Tal al-Sultan refugee camp near the southern city of Rafah.
The war in Gaza has made the childbirth process extremely dangerous, with pregnant women facing not only almost daily strikes that hinder their access to health facilities, but also widespread food insecurity, poor hygiene conditions and water shortages.
According to humanitarian groups, the few hospitals that are still functioning are overwhelmed with workload.
Doctors Without Borders said this week that premature births and maternal complications, including eclampsia, hemorrhage and sepsis, are on the rise.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
