Watan – In the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike claimed the lives of 11 family members, leaving behind a newborn as the sole survivor. This incident forms yet another dark chapter in the war that the Israeli army wages against the Palestinian people—a war that has already taken the lives of thousands of civilians, predominantly women and children.
Al-Jazeera aired poignant footage of this newborn, resting in an incubator inside a hospital.
طفل فلسطيني يولد يتيما بعد استـشـ ــهاد 11 شخصا من عائلته في قصـ ــف للاحتـ ــلال على شمال قطاع #غزة#الجزيرة_مباشر #غزة_لحظة_بلحظة pic.twitter.com/3Bek2F2HQe
— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) October 22, 2023
“As this infant took his first breaths, his mother took her last. He is now an orphan in Gaza,” relayed a doctor from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the shared video. They identified the child as the son of the late Fatima Al-Harsh.
After a bomb destroyed their home in the northern province of the Gaza Strip, medical professionals transferred the child from the Kamal Adwan hospital.
Ambulance crews raced to save the mother, 32 weeks pregnant and fighting for her life. Although doctors succeeded in delivering the child, she sadly didn’t survive. Now at Al-Shifa Hospital, the eight-day-old infant faces moderate cerebral malnutrition, but his general health remains stable.
“The child’s future hangs in the balance,” the doctor reflected. “With his entire family of 11 tragically martyred, questions loom about his care once he leaves the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.”
The Israeli onslaught continues to rob countless Palestinian children of their childhoods in Gaza. As of Monday, reports indicate that Israeli aggression over the last 17 days has led to the tragic death of 2055 children.
However, these chilling numbers might only scratch the surface. Many believe the actual toll may be much higher, with countless young lives lost, and their bodies buried beneath the rubble of their destroyed homes.
This staggering rate of child fatalities in Gaza, due to Israeli aggression, has no precedent in warfare history, as noted by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights.