Islam Al-Qanou spoke to her newborn son as she walked back to the camp for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
“Oh, Abdel Hadi, you came at a time of destruction and war,” she said. “There is no bed for the boy. We are staying in the open air and on the sand.”
It was an accurate description of the baby’s new home.
Using wood to hold up blankets and other pieces of cloth, some of which were marked with the logo of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Abdel Hady’s family had carved out a small plot of land for themselves among thousands of people.
Under a small covered area, a makeshift crib was made with rope, suspended by a plastic crate. A pillow and a pink blanket for comfort.
Underneath, a couple of thin mattresses for the mother to lie on.
“It was an indescribable happiness, especially in the midst of all this sadness and destruction,” Islam’s husband, Mahmood Al-Qanun, told Facts Times shortly after their arrival. “We hope this baby will heal some of our wounds and suffering.” But the war in Gaza is never far away, and as Islam nurses her newborn son, a loud explosion sounds nearby and black smoke billows into the air.
It’s a reminder that death is never far away in the Gaza Strip, where health officials say more than 41,000 people have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel, killing some 1,200 and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
Abdel Hadi Al-Qanou was born a few days earlier, on Aug. 15, via caesarean section at Nasser Hospital, weighing nearly 7 pounds when he was born.
Others were not so lucky, according to Dr. Shereen Allwai, who worked as a gynecologist at Nasser Hospital for 10 years.
“We cannot provide enough care for a pregnant woman,” she said.
“The health of the mothers is very critical and very difficult for many reasons. There is severe malnutrition in the pregnant mother and a shortage of medicines and supplements, which results in a very low birth weight for the newborn,” she added.
In Islam’s case, doctors admitted her almost immediately after realizing she was suffering from high blood pressure.
“We operated on her by giving her partial anesthesia, not full anesthesia, so that her blood pressure would not rise,” Dr. Iyad Al-Dagga said shortly after the birth. “Thank God, as we see, the child is in good condition.”
Islam, 43, who became the mother of 10 children with the arrival of Abdel Hadi, said she hoped for a better future for her entire family.
“A new happiness will be born, and God willing, it will be a happier time for us,” she said, adding: “We are happy. I will have a new baby, and he will bring us joy. I believe that God will reward us for those we lost, the shelling, the fear and the displacement. This is my message.”