Baby Saved from Gaza Rubble after Mother Killed in Israeli Strike

A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on December 29, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on December 29, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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Baby Saved from Gaza Rubble after Mother Killed in Israeli Strike

A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on December 29, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken from a position in southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during Israeli bombardment on December 29, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

The rescuers in orange vests shouted as they reached a baby girl still alive in the rubble of an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip's Rafah city after yet another night of bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.

Baby Mariam Abu Akel's skin was grey with dust and she made little noises as the rescuers reached deep into the rubble to free her legs and lift her clear.

People crowded around in the ruins of the Abu Edwan family's house, where Mariam's family had been sheltering after they fled their own home in a more dangerous area near Gaza's border with Israel.

The air strike killed 20 people and wounded 55, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.

The Abu Edwan house had been sheltering many displaced people like the Abu Akel family.

Most of Gaza's population have had to flee their homes in the face of a withering bombardment and ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during its Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli retaliatory assault has killed more than 21,500 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the enclave, many of them children under 18.

Mariam's mother and sister were both killed in the strike along with members of the Abu Edwan family and people from other families temporarily living with them. Her father and brother Hamed, still a toddler, survived the blast.

When Mariam was lifted free, a rescuer ran with her in his arms to take her to hospital. Doctors there swabbed her cuts.

‘I was shaking. I was terrified’

Rafah's hospitals were already dealing with the nightly influx of wounded people taken out of bombed houses.

Nadeen Abdulatif, 13, stood by a pile of debris next to the Rafah house where she and her family had taken shelter after their own home in Gaza City was ruined by an air strike targeting the building next door, which killed her older brother.

She could not stop thinking about being killed, or her other brother dying, she said. The air strike during the night had blown out the windows and rattled the building.

"My brother was shaking. I was shaking. I was scared. I didn't move from my place because of how terrified I was," she said.

At another air strike site, rescuers had pulled out two infant girls. In an ambulance, medics sponged a thick layer of dust from their faces as a badly bleeding boy sat opposite them, dazed.

In the hospital, children lay for treatment on the floor. A boy with bandages around his head and blood covering his face was crying. Next to him lay another boy with a brace around his neck. The two little girls lay on a stretcher.

Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians, saying Hamas is responsible for harm that comes to them by operating amongst them. Hamas denies this.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.