A Gaza hospital said Saturday it saved a baby boy from his mother‘s womb after she died from wounds sustained in an Israeli strike. Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd, who was nine months pregnant, barely survived a punishing night of missile strikes that rescue services across the Hamas-run territory said killed more than 24 people, including six members of the same family.
But by the time Kurd reached Al-Awda Hospital, she was “almost dead”, according to surgeon Akram Hussein. Doctors performed an ultrasound that detected the baby’s heartbeat. They quickly staged an emergency cesarean section “and extracted the fetus,” the surgeon said.
The newborn was in critical condition, but after receiving oxygen and medical attention, he stabilised, said Raed al-Saudi, head of the gynaecology department. He was placed in an incubator and transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah. Kurd was among three women and a child killed by an Israeli missile fired on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Her husband was also wounded in the strike on the family home.
Israel has not confirmed individual strikes, but a military statement said troops were “conducting targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure sites” in central Gaza.