These Gaza babies who will not see their first birthday
On September 16, the Gaza Health Ministry released a 649-page document containing the personal information of 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks on the enclave over the past 11 months. This seemingly endless list is incomplete: more than 41,000 Palestinians have been murdered since October 7, according to Health Ministry figures, but many of them have yet to be identified. More than 11,300 of the identified victims are children, and 710 of those were killed before they reached the age of 1.
This is the story, as told by their families, of six of the babies who were taken from the world before they even reached their first birthday.
Asser and Aysal Abu Al-Qumsan, four days
In August, the world saw images of Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan, 33, holding the birth certificates of his newborn twins. Displaced from the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City in early October, his family was forced to move to the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah before fleeing again to an apartment in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. It was there that an Israeli artillery shell killed his twins, Asser and Aysal, just four days after their birth, as well as their mother, Jumana.
On August 10, Muhammad and Jumana were overjoyed when she gave birth to the twins after a difficult cesarean section at the American field hospital in Deir al-Balah. But suddenly, their happiness was replaced by pain and deep sorrow.
“At the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza, after being moved from one area to another in search of a safe place where my wife could comfortably and peacefully complete the remaining months of her pregnancy, I finally decided to stay in an apartment belonging to one of my wife’s relatives in Al-Qastal Towers, east of Deir al-Balah, with her mother and siblings,” Muhammad tells +972. “I did not imagine that this apartment would become a target for the occupation’s missiles.”
“After having breakfast with my wife and her mother on the morning of August 13, I went to collect my children’s birth certificates from the Civil Affairs Department of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah,” he continued. “A few minutes after receiving them, and while I was still in the hospital, I received a phone call from a neighbor informing me that the Israeli army had shelled the apartment where my wife and children were staying, and that all the occupants had been evacuated to the hospital where I was at the time.”
“I initially thought they were only injured, but shock overcame me when I discovered that their bodies had been placed in the refrigerators of the hospital morgue,” Muhammad continued. “One of the twins had been torn to pieces, his features unrecognizable, while the other was lying in blood, just like his mother. As for their grandmother, the Israeli shell had cut off her head. The shock and the horrific scene I witnessed were too much for my mind and heart to bear. I fainted and collapsed on the ground.”
After the twins were born, Jumana posted a message on her Facebook profile announcing the news, which delighted everyone who knew her. A flood of congratulations and expressions of happiness followed, despite the surrounding tragedies. Four days later, the same message was filled with condolences: commenters expressed shock at the news of Jumana’s death and offered their condolences for her and her children’s deaths.
“Jumana and I were looking forward to our new life, which would be filled with the laughter of our two children, but the Israeli occupation deprived us of this joy,” Mr. Muhammad said. “I only have brief memories of those most beautiful moments of my life with my twins and my wife, before they left this world. Aysal and Asser were my first and last joy. What were they guilty of? Why did the Israeli occupation bomb them?”
Sabrine Al-Rouh Al-Sheikh, five days
Sabrine Al-Rouh Al-Sheikh was not yet born when an Israeli airstrike on Rafah seriously injured her mother and killed her father and sister in April. The baby’s paternal uncle, Rami Al-Sheikh, described the devastation caused by the bombing in the city’s Al-Shaboura neighborhood. “At dawn on April 20, while we were sleeping and without any prior warning, warplanes bombed the house,” Rami said. “My brother Shukri was torn to pieces, as was his daughter Malak.”
Doctors performed an emergency caesarean section on the seven-month-pregnant mother, also named Sabrine, but she died ten minutes later from injuries to her head, chest and abdomen. Little Sabrine was transferred to Al-Emirati Hospital in Rafah for further medical treatment; for five days, she clung to life in the face of death before succumbing and rejoining her family.
In addition to the baby Malak’s mother, father and 3-year-old sister, 16 other members of their extended family were killed in the strike.
“Her father was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his little girl and wanted to name her ‘Rouh,’ which means ‘soul,’ but I chose to name her Sabrine Al-Rouh, to honor her mother while fulfilling her father’s wish before he was killed,” Rami told +972. “How long will these massacres continue? The world is not paying attention to the genocide that is being committed against us.”
Manal Abu Al-O’uf, seven months
During the first week of the Israeli assault, Mo’emen Abu Al-O’uf, 26, was evacuated with his family from their home in Gaza City and took shelter with relatives in Deir al-Balah — assured by Israeli evacuation notices that areas south of Wadi Gaza were safe. But on October 14, just one day after their move, Israeli warplanes bombed the house next door to the one they were staying in, without any prior warning. Mo’emen and his brother survived the blast with injuries, but his wife, Alaa (22), his baby daughter, Manal (7 months), and his mother, Manal (53), were all killed.
“At first I thought what happened to me was just a bad dream,” he says. “I felt an immense sense of loss and grief that only someone who has experienced the bitterness of losing a loved one can understand.”
Eleven months after the attack, Mo’emen is still accompanied by memories of his family and the devastating pain of their loss. “The happiest days of my life were my wedding to Alaa on December 12, 2021, and the birth of my daughter Manal, but the occupation robbed me of that joy by killing them. They were innocent. Were they fighters? Did they carry weapons?”
Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza, five and a half months
On March 2, an Israeli airstrike targeted the home of Rania Abu Anza, 29, in the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, killing her twins, her husband, and 11 family members who had sought refuge with them. Rania survived the bombing and was rescued from the rubble of her destroyed home.
“We were sleeping when the house was attacked,” Rania tells +972. “Suddenly, I found myself buried in a pile of rubble. I didn’t hear the missile that hit us. I screamed, hoping that someone would save us, while the rubble covered the bodies of my children and my husband. They were all killed.”
It took Rania and her husband many years to get pregnant. “We had a hard time conceiving,” she says. “I underwent three artificial insemination procedures; the first two failed, but we succeeded on the third. I fell pregnant with my twins, Naeem and Wissam, and gave birth to them on October 13.”
“I never imagined that I would lose my twins and my husband,” Rania continues. “I looked forward to the day when I would see them grow up in front of me, but now I am alone. Even today, I search through the scattered rubble of the house for memories of my children — their blankets and the clothes I had dreamed of seeing them wear. I still have their clothes and I continue to wear the ring of my husband, with whom I shared the happiest days of my life. But the occupation killed my dream and prevented me from being a mother.”
Ibrahim Mohammad is an independent Palestinian journalist from Gaza City who covers humanitarian and social issues. He holds a BA in Journalism and Media from Al-Aqsa University.
Translation: JB for
Source: +972
