Gaza baby rescued from dead mother's womb 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 on Friday.

The baby had been named Sabreen al-Rouh. The second name means "soul" in Arabic.

Her mother, Sabreen al-Sakani (al-Sheikh), was seriously injured when the Israeli strike hit the family home in Rafah, the southernmost city in the besieged Gaza Strip, on Saturday night.

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

Sabreen al-Sakani (al-Sheikh), 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 Doctor Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital, who had been caring for Sabreen al-Rouh.

She died on Thursday and her tiny body was buried in a sandy graveyard in Rafah.

"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.

"She was born while her respiratory system wasn't mature, and her immune system was very weak and that is what led to her death. She joined her family as a martyr," Salama said.

More than 34,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in the six-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, 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.

"(Sabreen al-Rouh's) grandmother urged me and the doctors to take care of her because she would be someone that would keep the memory of her mother, father and sister alive, but it was God's will that she died," Salama said.

Her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda, sat by her grave on Friday lamenting the loss of the infant and the others in the family.

He said he had visited the hospital every day to check on Sabreen al-Rouh's health. Doctors told him she had a respiratory problem but he did not think it was bad until he got a call from the hospital telling him the baby had died.

"Rouh is gone, my brother, his wife and daughter are gone, his brother-in-law and the house that used to bring us together are gone," he told Reuters.

"We are left with no memories of my brother, his daughter, or his wife. Everything was gone, even their pictures, their mobile phones, we couldn't find them," the uncle said.