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.



Arab League Secretary General Condemns Israeli Statements on West Bank Sovereignty

Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Arab League Secretary General Condemns Israeli Statements on West Bank Sovereignty

Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit strongly condemned the extremist remarks made by an Israeli official regarding extending Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, the Saudi Press Agency said on Wednesday.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Aboul Gheit urged the international community to take a stand against this radical attitude, emphasizing that it only leads to heightened tensions in the region and incites further extremism and violence.
He said that such statements attest to Israel's total disregard for international law, which recognizes the West Bank as an occupied territory that cannot be annexed or subjected to Israeli sovereignty, and considers settlements illegal.
Aboul Gheit further stressed that such statements expose the true nature of the extremist settler government in Israel, which is an occupying force, and reveal its actual agenda, which is to undermine the Palestinian cause through its policies, including the annexation of occupied territory.
The Extraordinary Arab and Islamic Summit held in Riyadh, he added, approved several mechanisms and action plans to counter the Israeli agenda, which has now become evident as solely aimed at undermining any genuine opportunity to arrive at the two-state solution, a goal supported by the entire international community.