Gaza baby saved from dying mother's womb dies

A baby saved from her dying mother's womb in the war-battered Gaza Strip has died, her uncle told AFP on Friday.

Sabreen al-Ruh was the only surviving member of her immediate family after she was delivered by Caesarean section while her mother lay fatally wounded from an Israeli air strike at the weekend.

The Emirati hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah said the premature baby died on Thursday "despite efforts by the neonatal unit staff" to keep her alive.

Her uncle Rami al-Sheikh told AFP the hospital had called to say "her condition had worsened and they couldn't save her".

"She passed away to join her family," he said. "I went and completed all the procedures at the hospital today, and brought the girl's body home."

"I opened her father Shukri's grave and buried her there," he added.

Witnesses told AFP the family's house in Rafah was hit by an Israeli strike, which killed at least 19 people, according to Gaza's health ministry. Al-Ruh's father and sister were among those killed.

Al-Ruh's mother Sabreen al-Sakani reached the emergency unit at the city's Kuwaiti hospital in a critical condition with wounds to the head and abdomen, and died shortly after the baby was delivered.

Doctors had described the baby's survival as a "miracle" earlier this week.

Al-Ruh had been transferred to the Emirati field hospital, set up in December to cope with the besieged Palestinian territory's mounting toll of injured and dead.

Israel has since threatened to invade Rafah, where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge, despite international outcry.

The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas erupted when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas, and its ensuing military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 34,356 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.