As rescuers worked fervently amidst the ruins of a collapsed apartment building in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, they detected the cries of a baby from beneath the rubble.
The shouts of “God is great” filled the air as a man emerged from the wreckage carrying a living infant, swaddled snugly in a blanket, and promptly handed her over to an awaiting ambulance team. The baby girl, who stirred slightly, was examined by attentive paramedics.
Tragically, her parents and brother had perished in an overnight Israeli airstrike.
“The girl is about a month old, and had been trapped under the debris since dawn,” relayed Hazen Attar, a first responder from the civil defense. “We heard her crying and then going silent intermittently until we finally freed her, and gratefully, she is unharmed.”
The infant, identified as Ella Osama Abu Dagga, was born just 25 days ago amid a fragile ceasefire that many in Gaza had hoped signaled an end to the devastating war that has ravaged the territory, claimed tens of thousands of lives, and displaced nearly all its residents.
The baby’s grandparents are the only survivors of the attack. Her immediate family, including her brother, mother, and father, were killed along with another family, comprising a father and his seven kids. Rescue workers were seen pulling the small body of a child from a mattress where he had been sleeping.
Fatima Abu Dagga, Ella’s grandmother, was surrounded by grieving women at a relative’s home on Thursday. They took turns holding the infant, mourning the loss of their family, and reconciling with the ongoing devastation of war.
“We never truly lived in peace,” she expressed. “We were constantly aware that the conflict could reignite at any moment. We never experienced any real sense of stability.”
The tensions escalated after Israel renewed heavy airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, breaching a truce that had previously allowed the release of over two dozen hostages. The Israeli government attributed the outbreak of violence to Hamas, accusing the group of disregarding a proposed continuation of the ceasefire negotiated by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt.
Since the resumption of hostilities, around 600 people have died in Gaza, with more than 400 casualties reported on Tuesday alone, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The majority of those affected were women and children, as per local health authorities.
The airstrike that devastated Ella’s home struck Abasan al-Kabira, a village lying just outside Khan Younis near the Israeli border, resulting in at least 16 fatalities, predominantly women and children, according to reports from the nearby European Hospital receiving the deceased.
This strike happened within an area designated for evacuation by the Israeli military earlier this week, including much of eastern Gaza.
Nabil Abu Dagga, a relative of Ella’s, rushed to the site shortly after the strike.
“Families were gathered, celebrating the night of Ramadan together,” he described. “… Nobody anticipated this tragedy, nor could they fathom such acts taking place.”
He, alongside others, worked tirelessly to recover bodies, eventually hearing the cries of the baby girl.
The Israeli military insists that its operations solely target militants and attributes civilian casualties to Hamas’s strategic entrenchment within residential sectors. There was no immediate response from the military regarding the latest strikes.
Later, Israel re-established a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City, that had been largely maintained throughout the conflict but was lifted during the ceasefire. This prompted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to attempt returning to their homes in the north once the ceasefire began in January.
The conflict’s onset dates back to when Hamas-led militants infiltrated southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages being taken. In the consequent Israeli air and ground assaults, nearly 49,000 Palestinians have been killed, with a substantial number being women and children as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. This figure does not specify militant casualties, while Israeli authorities estimated around 20,000 militants killed, without presenting corroborative evidence.
