'Miracle' baby born in Gaza after air strike kills heavily pregnant mother

GAZA - Nine months pregnant, Ola Al-Kurd could not wait to hold her baby and bring new life to Gaza during a war that has killed more than 39,000 fellow Palestinians and razed much of the enclave.

That special moment never came.

An Israeli air strike smashed into the family home in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza on July 19, according to her father, Adnan Al-Kurd.

The blast threw Ola down several floors to her death in the house, whose inhabitants included women, children and the elderly, he said.

Somehow, her baby survived, as did her husband, who was hospitalised.

"It's a miracle that the foetus stayed alive inside of her when she was martyred," Adnan Al-Kurd said, contemplating a photo of his daughter's graduation.

The explosion, like many others, killed several members of a single family, a daily tragedy across Gaza since Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to a devastating cross-border attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on Oct 7 in 2023.

Mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt have failed in multiple attempts to secure a ceasefire. So it is highly unlikely that Israeli air strikes and shelling will end any time soon.

"She wanted to hold her child and fill our home with his presence," Al-Kurd said. "She would say, 'Mum, hopefully, this will make up for the loss of my martyred brothers and bring life back to our home'."

Entirely against the odds, surgeons at Al Awda hospital in Nuseirat - where Ola was first taken after the strike - managed to deliver the newborn, Malek Yassin.

He was then transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where an aunt touched the baby's face as he lay in an incubator.

"Thank God, this baby's life was saved, and he is now alive and well," Dr Khalil Al-Dakran said at the hospital, where many medical facilities have been destroyed in more than nine months of war. 

Al-Kurd gazes at photos of his three late children killed in the Gaza war. He said baby Yassin is blonde, like his deceased uncle Omar. "I go visit him every day. He is a part of me," he said. 

Babies who survive frequent Israeli bombardment get no relief as the conflict inflicts more destruction in the heavily built-up, densely populated Gaza Strip.

"We are, in fact, facing very great difficulties in the nursery department," said Dr Al-Dakran. This due to a lack of sufficient medication and supplies, and fears that the hospital generator could stop at any moment due to fuel shortages. 

Hospitals across impoverished Gaza have been demolished or seriously damaged during the war, which began when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with an air and ground offensive that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry, and levelled much of the coastal territory.

"What is the fault of this child to start his life under difficult and very bad circumstances, deprived of the most basic necessities of life?" said Dr Al-Dakran.

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