Friday, April 26, 2024

Baby saved from dead mother's womb in Gaza dies

By Fergal Keane,
BBC News, Jerusalem
Reuters

A baby rescued from her dying mother's womb after an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza has died, the BBC has learned.

Baby Sabreen al-Sakani was delivered by Caesarean section in a Rafah hospital shortly after midnight on Sunday.

Amid chaotic scenes doctors resuscitated the baby, using a hand pump to push air into her lungs.

However she died on Thursday and has been buried next to her mother after whom she was named.

Baby Sabreen was among 16 children killed in two air strikes in Rafah last weekend. All were killed in a bombardment targeting the housing complex where they lived.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure.

Sabreen's mother was seven-and-a-half months pregnant when the Israeli air strike on the al-Sakani family home took place just before midnight on Saturday as she, her husband Shukri and their three-year-old daughter Malak were asleep.

Sabreen suffered extensive injuries and her husband and Malak were killed, but the baby was still alive in her mother's womb when rescue workers reached the site.

They rushed Sabreen to hospital, where doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section to deliver the child.

It appeared that Sabreen had stabilised and she was subsequently placed in an incubator. At the time doctors described her condition as critical.

Baby Sabreen's maternal grandmother, Mirvat al-Sakani, told the BBC the family had planned to adopt the child.

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