Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda dies just days after her mother, father and sister were killed in an Israeli attack on Rafah.
A premature Palestinian baby who was rescued from his mother's womb after being killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip has died after days in an incubator.
Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda died Thursday in a hospital in Gaza after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, her uncle Rami al-Sheikh Jouda said.
Her death was also confirmed on Friday by Dr. Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neonatal unit at the Emirati Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, who cared for the girl.
“I and other doctors tried to save her but she died. It was a very difficult and painful day for me personally,” Salama told Reuters.
The girl's mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was taken to hospital after an Israeli airstrike hit the family's home in Rafah on Saturday.
The girl, who was named Sabreen after her mother, was saved by caesarean section after her mother succumbed to her injuries.
Al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant, was killed along with her husband and young daughter.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas fighters and infrastructure in the attack, which killed mostly women and children.
Weighing just 1.4 kg (3.1 lb), the baby had severe breathing problems because he was born prematurely. She was under the care of an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“She was born when her respiratory system was not mature and her immune system was very weak and this led to her death.” She joined her family as a martyr,” said Salama, a doctor.
The girl's uncle told the AP that she was buried next to her father on Thursday.
“We were attached to this child in a crazy way,” he said, speaking near her grave in the Rafah cemetery.
“God took something from us, but he gave us something in return,” said the uncle, and the child survived after her family died.
“But (now) he took them all. My brother's family is completely destroyed. It was deleted from the civil registry. There was no trace of him.”
The child is among more than 14,000 children who have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the war began on October 7.
More than 34,300 Palestinians have been killed throughout the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Despite international calls for an end to the conflict, Israeli leaders have said they plan to proceed with a ground attack on Rafah.
About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in the southern city, which was previously designated a “safe zone.”
