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THE GAZAN INFANTS WHO NEVER SAW THEIR FIRST BIRTHDAY  
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Ibrahim Mohammad
September 18, 2024
972 Magazine
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_ For thousands of Palestinian parents, the joy of giving birth
rapidly turned to grief when their newborn babies were killed by
Israel's bombardment. _

Asser and Aysal Abu Al-Qumsan, killed when they were four days old,
Courtesy of Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan

 

On Sept. 16, Gaza’s Health Ministry released
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649-page document containing the personal information of 34,344
Palestinians killed by Israel’s onslaught on the enclave over the
past 11 months. The seemingly endless list is incomplete: more than
41,000 Palestinians have been martyred since October 7, according to
Health Ministry figures, but many of them have not yet been fully
identified
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11,300 of the identified victims are children, and 710 of them were
killed before they turned 1.

These are the stories of six of those infants who were stolen from the
world before even seeing their first birthday, as told by their
families.

ASSER AND AYSAL ABU AL-QUMSAN, FOUR DAYS OLD

In August, people around the globe saw the images of 33-year-old
Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan holding the birth certificates of his newborn
twins. Displaced from the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City in early
October, his family had been forced to relocate to Shaboura refugee
camp in Rafah, before fleeing again to an apartment in Deir Al-Balah
in the center of the Strip. It was there that an Israeli artillery
shell killed his twin infants, Asser and Aysal, just four days after
they were born, along with their mother, Jumana.

On Aug. 10, Muhammad and Jumana were overjoyed when she gave birth to
the twins after a difficult caesarean section at the American field
hospital in Deir al-Balah. But before they knew it, that happiness was
replaced by deep sorrow and pain.

“At the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, after being displaced from
one area to another in search of a safe place where my wife could
comfortably and peacefully complete the remaining months of her
pregnancy, I finally decided to stay in an apartment owned by one of
my wife’s relatives in Al-Qastal Towers, east of Deir al-Balah,
along with her mother and siblings,” Muhammad told +972. “I did
not imagine that this apartment would become a target for the
occupation’s missiles.

[Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan holds the birth certificates of his newborn
twins. (Courtesy of Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan)]
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Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan holds the birth certificates of his newborn
twins. (Courtesy of Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan)
Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan holds the birth certificates of his newborn
twins. (Courtesy of Muhammad Abu Al-Qumsan)

“After having breakfast with my wife and her mother on the morning
of Aug. 13, I went to collect my children’s birth certificates from
the Civil Affairs Department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir
al-Balah,” he continued. “Minutes after receiving them, and while
I was still at the hospital, I received a phone call from a neighbor
informing me that the Israeli military had shelled the apartment where
my wife and children were, and that everyone inside had been evacuated
to the hospital where I was at the time.

“At first, I thought they might have only been wounded, but shock
overwhelmed me when I found that their bodies had been placed inside
the hospital morgue’s refrigerators,” Muhammad went on. “One of
the twins had been torn to pieces, his features unrecognizable, while
the other was soaked in blood, just like their mother. As for their
grandmother, the Israeli shell had severed her head. The shock and the
horrific scene I witnessed were too much for my mind and heart to
bear. I fainted and collapsed to the ground.”

After the twins’ birth, Jumana had shared a post on her Facebook
profile announcing the news, which brought joy to everyone who knew
her. A flood of congratulations and expressions of happiness followed,
despite the surrounding tragedies. Four days later, the same post was
filled with condolences: commenters expressed their shock at the news
of her death, offering sympathies for her and her children’s
passing.

“Jumana and I were eagerly awaiting our new life, which would be
filled with the laughter of our two children, but the Israeli
occupation robbed us of that joy,” Muhammad said. “I only have
brief memories and the most beautiful moments of my life with my twins
and my wife before they left this world. Aysal and Asser were my first
and last joy. What were they guilty of? Why did the Israeli occupation
bomb them?”

SABRINE AL-ROUH AL-SHEIKH, FIVE DAYS OLD

Sabrine Al-Rouh Al-Sheikh was not yet born when an Israeli airstrike
on Rafah critically wounded her mother and killed her father and
sister in April. The baby’s paternal uncle, Rami Al-Sheikh,
described the devastation caused by the bombing in the city’s
Al-Shaboura neighborhood. “At dawn on April 20, while we were
sleeping and without any prior warning, warplanes bombed the house,”
Rami recounted. “My brother Shukri was torn to pieces, as was his
daughter, Malak.”

[Malak, Shukri, and Sabrine Al-Sheikh. (Courtesy of the Al-Sheikh
family)]
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Malak, Shukri, and Sabrine Al-Sheikh. (Courtesy of the Al-Sheikh
family)
Malak, Shukri, and Sabrine Al-Sheikh. (Courtesy of the Al-Sheikh
family)

Doctors performed an emergency caesarean section on the mother, also
named Sabrine, who was seven months pregnant, but she died 10 minutes
later from wounds to her head, chest, and abdomen. Baby Sabrine was
transferred to Al-Emirati Hospital in Rafah for further medical care;
for five days, she clung to life in the face of death, before she
eventually succumbed and joined her family.

Along with the baby’s mother, father, and 3-year-old sister, Malak,
16 other members of their extended family were killed in the strike.

“Her father was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his baby girl and
wanted to name her ‘Rouh’, meaning ‘soul’, but I chose to name
her Sabrine Al-Rouh in honor of her mother, while also fulfilling her
father’s wish before he was killed,” Rami told +972. “How long
will these massacres continue? The world is not paying attention to
the genocide being committed against us.”

MANAL ABU AL-O’UF, SEVEN MONTHS OLD

During the first week of Israel’s onslaught, Mo’emen Abu
Al-O’uf, 26, was displaced with his family from their home in Gaza
City, and sought shelter with relatives in Deir al-Balah — assured
by Israeli evacuation notices that the areas south of Wadi Gaza were
safe. But on Oct. 14, only one day after they were displaced, Israeli
warplanes bombed the house next door to where they were staying,
without any prior warning. Mo’emen and his brother survived the
blast with wounds, but his wife, Alaa (22), his baby daughter, Manal
(seven months), and his mother, Manal (53), were all killed.

[Manal Abu Al-O’uf. (Courtesy of the Abu Al-O'uf family)]
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Manal Abu Al-O’uf. (Courtesy of the Abu Al-O'uf family)
Manal Abu Al-O’uf. (Courtesy of the Abu Al-O’uf family)

“At first, I thought what had happened to me was just a dream,” he
recounted. “I felt an overwhelming sense of loss and sorrow that
only someone who has experienced the bitterness of losing their loved
ones can understand.”

For the past 11 months following the attack, Mo’emen has been
accompanied by the memories of his family and the devastating pain of
their loss. “The happiest days of my life were when I married Alaa
on Dec. 12, 2021, and when my daughter Manal was born, but the
occupation deprived me of that joy by killing them. They were
innocent. Were they fighters? Were they carrying weapons?”

NAEEM AND WISSAM ABU ANZA, FIVE AND A HALF MONTHS OLD

On March 2, an Israeli airstrike targeted the home of 29-year-old
Rania Abu Anza in the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, killing
her baby twins along with her husband and 11 relatives who had sought
refuge with them. Rania survived the bombing and was pulled from the
rubble of her destroyed home.

[Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza with their father, Wissam. (Courtesy of
the Abu Anza family)]
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Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza with their father, Wissam. (Courtesy of the
Abu Anza family)
Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza with their father, Wissam. (Courtesy of the
Abu Anza family)

“We were asleep when the house was attacked,” Rania told +972.
“Suddenly, I found myself buried in a pile of rubble. I didn’t
hear the missile that struck us. I screamed, hoping someone would
rescue us, as the rubble covered the bodies of my children and
husband. They were all killed.

It had taken Rania and her husband many years to get pregnant. “We
struggled a lot to have children,” she explained. “I underwent
three artificial insemination procedures; the first two attempts
failed, and we succeeded on the third try. I became pregnant with my
twins, Naeem and Wissam, and gave birth to them on Oct. 13.

“I never imagined I would lose my twins and husband,” Rania
continued. “I had eagerly awaited the day I would see them grow up
in front of me, but now I am left alone. To this day, I still search
through the scattered rubble of the house for memories of my children
— their blankets and clothes that I had dreamed of seeing them wear.
I still hold on to their clothes, and I still continue to wear my
husband’s ring, with whom I shared the most beautiful days of my
life. But the occupation killed my dream and prevented me from being a
mother.

_Ibrahim Mohammad is an independent Palestinian journalist from Gaza
City who covers humanitarian and social issues. He holds a BA in
journalism and media from Al-Aqsa University._

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_+972 Magazine [[link removed]] is an independent,
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journalists. Founded in 2010, our mission is to provide in-depth
reporting, analysis, and opinions from the ground in Israel-Palestine.
The name of the site is derived from the telephone country code that
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