Newborn saved from dead mother's womb in Gaza hospital

A Gaza hospital said Saturday that it saved a baby boy from his mother's womb after she died from wounds sustained in an Israeli strike, according to AFP.

Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd, who was nine months pregnant, barely survived a punishing night of missile strikes in northern Gaza.

But by the time Kurd reached Al-Awda Hospital, she was "almost dead", said surgeon Akram Hussein.

Doctors were unable to save the mother, but performed an ultrasound that detected the baby's heartbeat.

They quickly staged an emergency cesarean section "and extracted the fetus," the surgeon told AFP. 

The newborn was initially in critical condition, but after receiving oxygen and medical attention was stabilised, said Raed al-Saudi, head of the hospital's obstetrics and gynaecology department.

He was placed in an incubator and transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Kurd was among three women and a child killed by an Israeli missile fired on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a medical official at Al-Awda Hospital. Her husband was also wounded in the strike on the family home.