Nine months pregnant, Ola Al-Kurd could not wait to hold her baby and bring new life to Gaza during a war that has killed over 39,000 fellow Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and razed much of the enclave.
That special moment never came.
An Israeli airstrike smashed into the family home in Nuseirat in central Gaza on Friday, her father Adnan Al-Kurd said. The blast threw Ola down several floors to her death in the house, whose inhabitants included women, children, and the elderly, he said.
Somehow, her baby survived, as did her husband, who was hospitalized.
"It’s a miracle that the fetus stayed alive inside of her when she was martyred (died)," Adnan Al-Kurd said, contemplating a photo of his daughter's graduation.
Mediators from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt have failed in multiple attempts to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
"She wanted to hold her child and fill our home with his presence," Al-Kurd said. "She would say, 'Mom, hopefully, this will make up for the loss of my martyred brothers and bring life back to our home.'"
Newborn delivered against all odds
Entirely against the odds, surgeons at Al Awda Hospital in Nuseirat - where Ola was first taken after the strike - managed to deliver the newborn, Malek Yassin. He was then transferred to Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where an aunt touched the baby's face as he lay in an incubator.
“Thank God, this baby's life was saved, and he is now alive and well,” doctor Khalil Al-Dakran said at the hospital, where many medical facilities have been destroyed in over nine months of war.
Al-Kurd gazes at photos of his three late children killed in the Gaza war. He said baby Yassin is blond like his deceased uncle Omar. “I go visit him every day. He is a part of me,” he said.
Babies who survive frequent bombardment get no relief as the conflict inflicts more destruction in the heavily built-up, densely populated Gaza Strip.
“We are, in fact, facing very great difficulties in the nursery department,” said Al-Dakran, due to a lack of sufficient medication and supplies and fears that the hospital generator could stop at any moment due to fuel shortages.
Hospitals across Gaza have been demolished or seriously damaged during the war, which began when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages.
Israel responded with an air and ground offensive that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, and leveled much of the coastal territory.
"What is the fault of this child to start his life under difficult and very bad circumstances, deprived of the most basic necessities of life?" said Dakran.