By Wafa Aludaini
A newborn baby, Sabreen Al-Rouh, came into the world a few minutes after her parents and sole sister left it, killed in a strike by Israeli occupation warplanes, hitting two homes to the east of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, massacring at least 19 Palestinians, including two women and 13 children from Abedalal family.
Asleep in an incubator in the Emirati field hospital in Rafah City, a piece of tape stretched across the baby’s tiny chest reads, “The baby of the martyr Sabreen Al-Sakani.” Doctors in a hospital in Rafah managed to save the life of a yet-unborn baby even as her mother was dying from severe head, abdominal, and chest injuries. The slain mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, was with her daughter Malak and husband Shukri in their family’s home when they were targeted by Israeli strikes. Rescuers reported that the baby’s father was left unrecognizable, body torn in pieces. Sabreen and Malak were fatally wounded and later pronounced dead at the hospital, where doctors discovered that Sabreen was seven months pregnant. Although Sabreen was rushed into the emergency unit in critical condition, doctors labored unsuccessfully to save her life before performing a Caesarian section to rescue the baby as her mother died.
She sleeps in an incubator in the Emirati field hospital in Rafah City, where we met her uncle, Rami El Sheikh, and grandmother. “I have always been attached to my brother, Shukri, and his family,” Rami told the PIC. “We got married on the same day, we also work together as barbers and our children share everything together.” Of his murdered niece, he tells the PIC, “My little son, Adam was always playing with, Malak, who was only 3 years old. Now I don’t know what I am going to tell him when he asks me about Malak,” Rami mused painfully. “My brother was a professional smith and he made a beautiful bed for his coming baby.” According to Rami, Sabreen was a bright woman whose dream was to be a doctor. He told us that she studied math in university, excelling with a score of 92%.
The devastated uncle recalled that his brother wanted to name the baby “Rouh,” which means ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ in English, so he named her Sabreen Al-Rouh; Sabreen in memory of her late mother who Rami described as a “kind-hearted woman,” and Rouh as her father had wanted.
The little baby weighs 1.4 kg and suffers from difficulties in breathing caused by premature birth. She still needs at least 3 weeks in the hospital because she is still supposed to be in her mother’s womb at this time, according to a medical source in the Kuwaiti Hospital who described her as “the miracle child,” telling PIC, “Despite all of the difficulties and challenges that we face in this collapsing health system, we managed to save the fetus’ life.” The tiny baby was transferred to the pediatrics unit of the Emirati field hospital, which was established in December in Rafah to deal with the growing number of casualties resulting from the relentless Israeli bombardment. The premature Sabreen was quickly put in an incubator, placed on oxygen and treated with antibiotics.
Rami, who visits the baby every day in the hospital, vowed to take care of her and considers her as a sister for his children. He told us he wishes that such a miracle may contribute to exposing the Israeli crimes against the people of Palestine.
The story of Sabreen AlRouh is not merely a singular incident amidst violations against the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. Sabreen’s story is one of tens of thousands. Many countless fetuses have been murdered while they were still in their mothers’ wombs, some killed along with their entire families. She is another witness who survived to bear testament to the Israeli atrocity and genocide in Gaza. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a child is killed in Gaza every 10 minutes.
The Israeli constant bombardments and the restricted access to food and clean water are severely affecting maternal, newborn health services. There are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 giving birth every day. Fifteen percent of them are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications and need additional medical care, according to the WHO.
The Israeli occupation has murdered more than 15,000 children since embarking on its genocidal bombardment campaign on besieged Gaza in October last year.
Despite these stark violations of international laws and norms, the international community has failed to stop the ongoing genocide or even levy sanctions against Israel, and to date the US administration continues to provide Israel with advanced weaponry used to commit further atrocities in Gaza.
Rafah, abutting the Egyptian border, is supposed to be a safe shelter for Palestinians in Gaza, where occupation forces ordered Palestinians from northern areas in Gaza to relocate to, inflating the local population of 171,889 as Rafah became shelter for about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip. Rafah is home to only one small and largely inadequate hospital that millions of people rely on now, particularly in the aftermath of Israel’s bombardment, which has rendered nearly every hospital in Gaza out of service due to direct targeting as well as lack of fuel and medicine as supplies to Gaza continue to be restricted by Israel.
-Wafa Aludaini is a Gaza-based journalist. She contributed this article to the PIC.
