2023-12-27 20:08:27
Published27. December 2023, 9:08 p.m.
Hamas-Israel conflict: Premature quadruplets born in the middle of war
A refugee in the south of the Gaza Strip, the mother of the newborns, a 29-year-old Palestinian, gave birth at 8 months of pregnancy. Since then, she has been fighting for her survival and that of her babies.
In the school classroom where their family lives crowded together, Yasser, Tia and Lynn sleep peacefully, oblivious to the tumult of war. Their brother Mohammad was unable to leave the hospital.
AFP
Iman Al-Masry is exhausted, next to her, on a worn foam mattress, three of her premature quadruplets. After a grueling journey to the southern Gaza Strip, she was forced to give birth by cesarean section.
The mother and her newborns, Yasser, Tia and Lynn, live in a school classroom in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, crowded with around 50 members of her extended family. Her fourth child, Mohammad, is under medical supervision in a hospital in the Nousseirat camp.
Iman Al-Masry had to flee the fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas. She hastily left her home in Beit Hanoun, in the north of the small territory, on the fifth day of the war which began on October 7. “I thought the war would not last more than a week or two and that we would return home,” confides the 29-year-old woman.
One of the babies, who weighs only 1 kilo, remained in the hospital
Six months pregnant, she traveled on foot, with her three young children, the 5 km which separate her house from the Jabaliya camp, where she found a means of transport to take them to Deir el-Balah. “I went to the doctor, who told me I had signs of premature labor. They gave me injections to stabilize the pregnancy,” she continues.
At 8 months pregnant, the doctors finally decided to induce labor. She gave birth to quadruplets on December 18, in the middle of the war. Due to lack of space in hospitals, Iman has to leave, leaving Mohammad behind, the newborn requiring medical monitoring.
“The health of the fourth baby was unstable. It only weighs 1 kilo. He may not survive, explains the young Palestinian. Praise God, the other three babies were born healthy.” She hasn’t seen Mohammad since he was born. “I worry regarding him, but the road is dangerous” to go visit him, says Iman Al-Masry. It’s a friend of her husband’s who watches him.
Due to lack of food, she does not have enough milk to breastfeed them.
Her “party dreams” to celebrate the birth of her babies were shattered by the war. She had imagined “watering them with rose water according to our customs”. However, for ten days since their birth, “we have not bathed them,” she laments.
Her nutritional deficiencies do not allow her to breastfeed sufficiently. She also lacks hygiene products for her babies. “I use diapers sparingly. Normally I change them every two hours, but the situation is difficult, and so I just change them morning and evening.”
Faced with her family’s destitution, her husband, Ammar Al-Masry, admits to not knowing what to do. “I feel helpless,” confides the 33-year-old father, installed with his six children in the classroom from which nauseating odors emanate. “I fear for the lives of my children, I don’t know how to protect them,” he laments.
Their father feels guilty
Her premature baby, Tia, suffers from jaundice, which might lead to neurological damage, according to doctors. “She must be breastfed to reduce the disease and my wife needs to eat foods that contain protein, but I cannot provide her with any,” lists the Gazan worker.
The father spends his days outside trying to find “anything” to feed them, and above all avoiding making eye contact with his children so as not to “feel guilty”.
(AFP)
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