Amid the horrors of war in Gaza, a woman pregnant with quadruplets had to walk five kilometres in search of shelter for her unborn babies. The Gazan woman, 28-year-old Iman al-Masry has now given birth to her premature children, one of which was too weak to leave the hospital.
Simply exhausted
Talking to news agency AFP, the mother said she is simply exhausted after giving birth to the quadruplets in a hospital in Southern Gaza.
al-Masry, when she was six months pregnant, had to flee her family home in Beit Hanun on foot, along with her three other children seeking safety.
The family had to walk five kilometres (around three miles) to the Jabalia refugee camp. “The distance was too long,” the young woman told AFP.
“It affected my pregnancy,” she added. On December 18, she gave birth by C-section to daughters Tia and Lynn and sons Yasser and Mohammed.
Of the four, Mohammed was too fragile to leave the hospital. However, to make space for other patients of war, Iman and her other newborns had to leave the medical facility.
“Mohammed weighs only one kilogram (2.2 pounds). He cannot survive,” said Iman, talking about the child she had to leave behind at a hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The mother and her other three newborns are now living in a cramped schoolroom turned shelter in Deir al-Balah along with around 50 other members of their extended family.
Talking to AFP, she recounted her journey from “hell,” and said: “When I left home, I had only some summer clothes for the children. I thought the war would last a week or two and that afterwards we would go back home.”
Now, more than 11 weeks later, her hope of going home has shattered.
The human cost of war
Iman is not alone. Thousands of Gazans have been rendered homeless by the war that began on Oct 7, with Hamas launching an attack on Israel. In the first attack, as per Israeli figures, 1,140 Israelis lost their lives. Another 250 were taken hostage by the Hamas militants, 129 of them still remain in captivity.
The retaliatory attack by Israel according to the latest toll issued by Gaza’s health ministry, has killed at least 21,110 people — about two thirds of them women and children.
