Nour Abu Saman was born on October 7, 2023, just three hours before the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip began. His mother Samar Hammad expressed happiness on his arrival, but this happiness lasted only for a day.
On 8 October, as Noor rested in her mother’s lap, Israeli missiles landed nearby. The air was filled with smoke and poisonous gases, and the newborn baby struggled to breathe.
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“My daughter suddenly collapsed into my hands,” Samar told Al Jazeera Arabic. “His complexion turned blue, his eyes rolled back and all his movements stopped”.
Doctors later diagnosed Noor with movement paralysis caused by inhalation of toxic gases. At just two days old, Noor’s life shifted from a nursery to a hospital bed, and a difficult journey of pain began.
a miraculous escape
Samar spent a month at Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in northern Gaza, caring for her daughter in the intensive care unit (ICU) as the fighting stopped. Northern Gaza bore the brunt of Israeli bombardment in the early days of the war. Soon, the area was surrounded by Israeli forces and people were forced to flee.
As the siege intensified, Samar managed to rescue Noor just before the hospital was bombed. Little did she know then that her daughter would be the only survivor of the deadly attack on Al-Nasr hospital, including its ICU. After Israeli forces stormed the medical facility, they cut off life-support systems for the premature babies left behind; A few days later their mutilated bodies were found in their beds.
Noor’s father, Othman Abu Saman, 42, looks at his daughter with a sad look that the times have not yet healed. The injury left Noor with severe stiffness in her limbs, which doctors describe as a condition more debilitating than partial paralysis.
“We tried again and again to make her sit, but she could not sit,” Othman said.
As families struggle, official data from Gaza’s health ministry confirms a rise in cases. Zaheer al-Wahidi, head of the ministry’s information unit, reported that 1,200 children in Gaza now suffer from spinal cord injuries and paralysis as a direct result of Israeli attacks.
a pain beyond his years
Six-month-old Misk Al-Jarrou has been battling health problems since her birth. She was born with severe deformities, missing joints in her hands and legs, while her twin brother died in the womb.
Although Misk survived, she is burdened with health problems that her mother, Warda al-Zaru, blames on the constant inhalation of toxic gases during her pregnancy.
For families like Misch’s, daily life is an exhausting cycle of overwhelming hospital visits and chasing elusive medical appointments.
“Misk is in a lot of pain, and every day I feel that his condition is becoming more serious,” Warda told Al Jazeera.
Their struggle reflects a widespread “epidemic” of deformities. The Health Ministry recorded 322 cases of birth defects in 2025 alone – double the pre-war rate. Al-Wahidi, head of the health ministry’s information unit, attributes the increase to famine, toxic exposure to millions of tons of projectiles, and the decline of prenatal care.
Two years of continuous bombardment have led to a demographic shift unseen in Gaza’s history. For the first time, population growth in the belt has turned negative, at -1.3 per cent. The birth rate is expected to decline by 38 percent in 2024 and further by 13 percent in 2025.
According to Al-Wahidi, infants who are born face serious obstacles. In 2025, more than 4,000 women would have delivered prematurely, and at least 4,800 babies would have been born with low birth weight – double the pre-war figure. The sad thing is that last year alone, 457 babies died in the first week of life.
hours of suffering
In the corridors of Mustafa Hafez School in western Gaza City, Ramez Abu Hajila struggles to keep a medical pressure mask on his two-year-old son, Mohammed Abu Hajila. Before dawn on July 3, 2025, an Israeli strike hit a school shelter, killing 14 of Ramez’s relatives. Mohammed suffered third-degree burns over 18 percent of his body.
Now, he has to wear a compression mask 20 hours a day. “When he wakes up, we feed him and prepare him for the hours of suffering to come,” Ramez said. Mohammed is one of approximately 1,000 children in Gaza who have had limbs amputated or suffered serious permanent wounds.
Al-Wahidi warned that the only hope for children like Nour, Misk and Mohammed lies in immediate medical evacuation. Currently, approximately 4,000 children in Gaza require urgent treatment abroad. The hope was that they would be allowed to travel through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the world. But Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on movement.
According to the Health Ministry, more than 20,000 patients and injured people are currently waiting to travel abroad for medical treatment. Despite the desperate need, official figures provided by al-Wahidi show that only 154 children have been allowed to leave Gaza since the crossing partially reopened in February.
“Every day the Rafah crossing remains closed, we lose lives,” al-Wahidi said. “More than 470 children have already died while waiting for their chance to be rescued.”
