Gaza Hospital Says Newborn Saved From Dead Mother's Womb

Born in critical condition in Gaza, Malek Yassin was stabilized after receiving oxygen and medical attention, doctors said - AFP
Born in critical condition in Gaza, Malek Yassin was stabilized after receiving oxygen and medical attention, doctors said - AFP
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Gaza Hospital Says Newborn Saved From Dead Mother's Womb

Born in critical condition in Gaza, Malek Yassin was stabilized after receiving oxygen and medical attention, doctors said - AFP
Born in critical condition in Gaza, Malek Yassin was stabilized after receiving oxygen and medical attention, doctors said - AFP

Doctors in Gaza described delivering a newborn baby against incredible odds on Saturday, pulling him from his mother's womb moments after she died of wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike.

At nine months pregnant, Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd managed to survive just long enough to reach Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza after an overnight strike hit her home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, medics said.

Emergency department doctors rushed into action when they saw the heavily pregnant woman arrive in critical condition, the head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department, Raed al-Saudi, said.

She was taken to the operating room, but was already "almost dead", surgeon Akram Hussein told AFP.

Unable to save the mother, who they said was in her 20s, doctors detected a heartbeat and a team of obstetricians and surgeons was called.

"An emergency caesarean section was performed, and the foetus was extracted," Saudi said.

Kurd was among at least 30 people killed across the Gaza Strip in a punishing 24 hours of Israeli bombardment that killed six members of one family in a neighbourhood north of Gaza City, rescuers and medics in Hamas-run Gaza said.

At least seven people were killed in overnight strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp, a civil defence spokesperson said.

Medical sources at Al-Awda Hospital said four children from Nuseirat were wounded while playing on a roof, with one requiring an amputation.

Kurd's husband was also wounded in the missile attack that hit their home, said surgeon Hussein.

After surviving the C-section, baby Malek Yassin faced further medical hurdles. Born in critical condition, he was stabilized after receiving oxygen and medical attention, Saudi said.

The war in Gaza has made childbirth increasingly perilous, with pregnant women facing near-daily strikes that hamper access to health facilities.

If they are able to reach a hospital, they find facilities that humanitarian groups say are stretched to breaking point.

Just 1,500 hospital beds are currently available to Gaza's more than two million people, compared with 3,500 beds before the war, UN agencies have said.

Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat is the only medical facility that has been able to provide obstetric and gynaecological care in central Gaza since the war began last year.

Pre-term deliveries and maternal complications, including eclampsia, haemorrhage and sepsis, have been rising, Doctors Without Borders said this week.



EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, as the group claimed attacks deep into Israel.  

The Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into Israel during the day. Some of them were intercepted but others caused damage to houses in central Israel, according to AFP images.  

A day after the health ministry said Israeli strikes on Beirut and across Lebanon killed 84 people, state media reported two strikes on Sunday on the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel's military said it had attacked "headquarters" of the group "hidden within civilian structures" in south Beirut.

War between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in late September, nearly a year after the group began launching strikes in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas following that group's October 7 attack on Israel.

The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.  

On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.  

Earlier this week, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said in Lebanon that a truce deal was "within our grasp" and then headed to Israel for talks with officials there.  

In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hezbollah.

"We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," Borrell said.  

"Lebanon is on the brink of collapse", he warned.  

Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area.  

The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and reiterated earlier calls for "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon."