Baby who had been saved from the womb of her mother killed in bombings in Gaza dies

A girl died after just a few days of life who was born in a Gaza hospital from his mother's wombwho was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The baby's death was confirmed by the doctor who took care of her, this Friday (26).

The baby was named Sabreen al-Rouh. The second name means “soul” in Arabic.

His mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was seriously injured when an Israeli strike hit the family home in Rafah, the southernmost city in the besieged Gaza Strip, on Saturday night.

Her husband Shukri and three-year-old daughter Malak were killed.

Sabreen al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant, was rushed to the Emirati hospital in Rafah.

She died from her injuries, but doctors managed to save the baby by delivering her via cesarean section.

However, the baby suffered from respiratory problems and a weak immune system, said doctor Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neonatal unit at Emirates Hospital, who was caring for Sabreen al-Rouh.

She died on Thursday and her small body was buried in a sandy cemetery in Rafah.

“I and other doctors tried to save her, but she died. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,” he told Reuters by phone.

“She was born while her respiratory system was not mature and her immune system was very weak and that is what led to her death. She joined the family as a martyr,” Salama said.

More than 34,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in the six-month war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians in its campaign to eradicate Hamas.

Much of Gaza has been devastated by Israeli bombing and most of the enclave's hospitals have been severely damaged, while those that are still functioning lack electricity, medicine sterilization equipment and other supplies.

“(Sabreen al-Rouh’s) grandmother asked me and the doctors to take care of her because she would be someone who would keep the memory of her mother, father and sister alive, but it was God’s will for her to die,” Salama said.

His uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda, sat beside his grave on Friday, mourning the loss of the child and other family members.

He said he visited the hospital every day to check on Sabreen al-Rouh's health.

Doctors told him she had a respiratory problem, but he didn't think it was serious until he got a call from the hospital saying the baby had died.

“Rouh is gone, my brother, his wife and daughter are gone, his brother-in-law and the home that brought us together are gone,” he told Reuters.

“We are left with no memories of my brother, his daughter or his wife. Everything was gone, even the photos, the cell phones, we couldn’t find them,” said the uncle.