Inside the infant nursery of the Emirati Maternity hospital in Rafah, 5-month-old Yahya cried as a nurse tried to soothe him.
Some 40 kilometers away in the Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza, his mother, Sondos Hamouda, also cried — for the baby she is unable to see because of the presence of the Israeli military.
Yahya was born on 27 November, two months premature. The sounds of bombings and explosions and the roar of war planes overhead in Gaza made his mother’s already difficult delivery harder.
Complicating matters, the newborn had difficulty breathing and absorbing enough oxygen, and treatment began immediately at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya. ….more
