Gaza [Palestine], April 22: A baby girl has been delivered from the womb of a Palestinian woman killed by an Israeli attack. The mother was killed along with her husband and another daughter by an Israeli attack in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Palestinian health officials have said.
The baby, weighing 1.4kg (3lb) and delivered in an emergency caesarean section, was stable and improving gradually, said Mohammed Salama, a doctor caring for her.
Her mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, had been 30 weeks pregnant. The baby was placed in an incubator in a Rafah hospital alongside another infant, with the words "The baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani" written on tape across her chest.
The baby would stay in hospital for three to four weeks, said Salama, the doctor. "After that we will see about her leaving, and where this child will go, to the family, to the aunt or uncle or grandparents. Here is the biggest tragedy. Even if this child survives, she was born an orphan," he said.
Health officials in Gaza reported that 22 people, including 18 children, were killed in the Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight. The first Israeli strike in Rafah killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies.
The pregnant woman was identified as Sabreen al-Sakani whose baby the doctors saved.
The second strike killed 17 children and two women from an extended family.
A relative, Umm Mohammad, told AP that the oldest killed, an 80-year-old aunt, was taken out "in pieces." Small children were zipped into body bags. Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge.
Source: Qatar Tribune