Baby delivered from dying mom dies

A BABY girl who was delivered from her dying mother’s womb in a Gaza hospital following an Israeli airstrike has herself died after just a few days of life, the doctor who was caring for her said yesterday.

The baby had been named Rouh, meaning Soul.

Her mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, was seriously injured when the Israeli strike hit the family home in Rafah, the southernmost city in the besieged Gaza Strip, last Saturday night.

Her husband Shukri and their 3-year-old daughter Malak were killed.

Sabreen, who was 30 weeks’ pregnant, was rushed to the Emirati hospital in Rafah. She died of her wounds but doctors were able to save the baby, delivering her by Caesarean section.

However, the baby suffered respiratory problems and a weak immune system, said Dr Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neonatal unit at Emirati Hospital, who had been caring for Rouh.

She died on Thursday.

“I and other doctors tried to save her, but she died. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,” he told Reuters by phone.

More than 34 000 Palestinians have been killed in the six-monthold war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, many of them civilian Palestinan women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians in its campaign to eradicate Hamas.

Much of Gaza has been laid to waste by Israeli bombardments and most of the enclave’s hospitals have been badly damaged, while those still operating are short of electricity, medicine, sterilisation equipment and other supplies.

Meanwhile, top Arab and European diplomats are expected to begin arriving in the Saudi capital this weekend for an economic summit and meetings on the war in Gaza, diplomatic officials said.

The two-day World Economic Forum special meeting, scheduled to begin in Riyadh tomorrow, includes in its official programme appearances by the Saudi, Jordanian, Egyptian and Turkish foreign ministers.

A Gaza-focused session on Monday is set to feature newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s aid co-ordinator for Gaza. |

REUTERS PEOPLE protest against the introduction of the registration and tourist fee to visit Venice this week. Venice began charging day trippers for entry, a world first aimed at easing pressure on the Italian lagoon city drowning under the weight of mass tourism. Day visitors will have to buy a five-euro (R100) ticket, monitored by inspectors carrying out spot checks at key points in the Unesco World Heritage site. |