Sabreen Jouda came into the world seconds after her mother left it. Their home was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Until that moment, the family was like so many other Palestinians trying to shelter from the war in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.
Quick Read
- Tragic Circumstances: Sabreen Jouda was born via emergency cesarean section immediately after her mother died in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza. The attack also killed her father and sister.
- Medical Emergency: The newborn, named after her late mother, was critically ill and required urgent medical attention. Medical workers at the Kuwaiti hospital where she was born managed to stabilize her enough to transfer her to an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Emirati hospital.
- Family Response: Sabreen’s paternal grandmother, Ahalam al-Kurdi, expressed a strong commitment to raising her despite the profound grief over the loss of her son and other family members.
- Wider Impact: The airstrike is part of ongoing conflict in Gaza that has resulted in significant civilian casualties, predominantly women and children, as reported by Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- Community Grief: The broader community is also deeply affected, with ongoing funerals for the victims, including children, which add to the pervasive sorrow in the region.
The Associated Press has the story:
A Palestinian baby in Gaza is born an orphan in an urgent cesarean section after an Israeli strike
Newslooks- RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) —
Sabreen Jouda came into the world seconds after her mother left it. Their home was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Until that moment, the family was like so many other Palestinians trying to shelter from the war in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.
Sabreen’s father was killed. Her 4-year-old sister was killed. Her mother was killed.
But emergency responders learned that her mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was 30 weeks pregnant. In a rush at the Kuwaiti hospital where the bodies were taken, medical workers performed an emergency cesarean section.
Little Sabreen was near death herself, fighting to breathe. Her tiny body lay in the recovery position on a small piece of carpet as medical workers gently pumped air into her open mouth. A gloved hand tapped at her chest.
On Sunday, in the hours after the airstrike, she whimpered and wriggled inside an incubator at the nearby Emirati hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. She wore a diaper too big for her and her identity was scrawled in pen on a piece of tape around her chest: “The martyr Sabreen al-Sakani’s baby.”
“We can say there is some progress in her health condition, but the situation is still at risk,” said Dr. Mohammad Salameh, head of the unit. “This child should have been in the mother’s womb at this time, but she was deprived of this right.”
He described her as a premature orphan girl.
“Welcome to her. She is the daughter of my dear son. I will take care of her. She is my love, my soul. She is a memory of her father. I will take care of her,” said Ahalam al-Kurdi, her paternal grandmother. She clutched her chest and rocked with grief.
At least two-thirds of the more than 34,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since this war began have been children and women, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The other Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight killed 17 children and two women from an extended family.
Not everyone is immediately recovered after such attacks.
“My son was also with them. My son became body parts and they have not found him yet. They do not recognize him,” said Mirvat al-Sakani, Sabreen’s maternal grandmother. “They have nothing to do with anything. Why are they targeting them? We don’t know why, how? We do not know.”
On Sunday, the survivors buried the dead. Children in bloodied wraps were placed in body bags and into the dusty ground as families wailed.
Little boys watched and tried to keep their footing at the edge of a grave.
