Samar Hammad gave birth to her youngest daughter, Nour Abu Samaan, just hours before the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
When she chose the name Nour – Arabic for “light” – the Palestinian mother could not have imagined that her newborn would soon be fighting for her life in a hospital incubator as Israeli forces advanced on the facility, cutting off electricity and oxygen supplies and leaving several newborns dead.
Nour survived against all odds, her mother says, but almost three years later she is still living with a disability made worse by Israel’s ongoing siege.
“I gave birth to Nour as a completely healthy baby on the eve of the war,” Hammad told Middle East Eye from a tent in central Gaza City.
Only hours after returning home, she said, Israeli strikes hit near the family’s neighbourhood. A building close to their house was bombed, and by the following day, Nour had begun losing consciousness.
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With her condition deteriorating rapidly, Hammad rushed her to al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in Gaza City.
When doctors saw the infant, they told Hammad she was dying. Nour was later diagnosed with complications caused by inhaling toxic gases released during the bombardment.
Nour remained in the hospital for more than a month as Israeli forces advanced deeper into Gaza and fighting intensified around the facility.
“The shelling was relentless,” Hammad recalled. “Nour was in an incubator with several other newborns. She repeatedly lost oxygen and had to be resuscitated.”
At one stage, doctors told Hammad there was little more they could do and that the machines keeping her daughter alive were only delaying the inevitable.
Desperate, she pleaded for permission to hold and breastfeed her baby.
After several requests, hospital staff relented. Within minutes of holding her, Hammad said, her daughter’s condition began to improve.
“The machines started showing a response,” she said. “The doctors were shocked. They told me it was like a miracle.”
The Israeli army had cut off all food, water and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip at the start of the war, pushing the enclave’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse.
The siege was compounded by direct attacks on hospitals and raids on medical facilities, which killed scores of patients, including newborn babies.
Hospital raid
In Gaza City, al-Nasr Children’s Hospital was among the first medical facilities targeted by the Israeli military.
As they shelled the hospital buildings, courtyards and their surroundings, staff asked parents of newborns in incubators to evacuate, assuring them their babies would remain safe under medical care.
“All the other mothers left their babies and fled south,” Hammad said. “But I told the doctors I couldn’t leave my daughter behind.”
After repeated pleas, doctors agreed to release Nour into her mother’s care, warning that Israeli forces were rapidly approaching the hospital.
“They gave her to me at my own responsibility,” Hammad recalled. “I carried her and walked out.”
On 9 November 2023, she fled the hospital with her daughter.
‘I told the doctors I couldn’t leave my daughter behind’
– Samar Hammad, Nour’s mother
Later that day, Israeli forces struck the hospital and cut oxygen supplies to the neonatal intensive care unit.
The following day, staff were ordered to leave, forcing them to abandon infants who could not be moved without incubators and life-support equipment.
Israeli troops subsequently entered the hospital and remained in the area for around three weeks.
When healthcare workers returned during a temporary ceasefire on 28 November, they found four babies dead.
Abu Samaan was the only infant from the incubator ward known to have survived, after her mother insisted on taking her out shortly before Israeli forces stormed the hospital.
For Hammad, however, survival marked the beginning of a new ordeal.
Thirst and hunger
After leaving al-Nasr Hospital, Hammad carried her daughter from one medical facility to another in search of treatment.
Nour’s body had gone limp, and as fighting intensified around them, mother and child became trapped inside a school sheltering displaced families.
“She cried constantly,” Hammad recalled. “People would tell me to make her stop because the tanks were surrounding us, and they were afraid soldiers would hear her.”
Eventually, she managed to reach al-Ahli Arab Hospital, commonly known as the Baptist Hospital. There, doctors conducted a CT scan and diagnosed Nour with brain calcification.
“They said it was most likely due to inhalation of phosphorus gas, and that she needed continuous physiotherapy,” Hammad said.
For the next six months, she took Nour for daily treatment at al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, hoping the therapy would improve her condition.
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But protecting her daughter from bombardment and securing medical care was only part of the struggle. Like countless other families in Gaza, Hammad also faced the daily challenge of finding enough food and water to keep her child alive.
“I would walk for hours, sometimes up to seven hours every day, searching for water,” she recalled.
As she wandered through the area carrying an empty bottle, repeatedly searching the same streets, an elderly displaced man noticed her desperation.
Three hours later, he stopped her and quietly filled her bottle from his family’s limited supply.
“Water was extremely scarce and almost unavailable; the man had to hide the water bottle in his clothes to secretly fill it,” she said.
“As soon as I got the water, I prepared her milk. She drank it and finally fell asleep after hours of crying and inability to sleep.”
Following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, then-Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, declaring there would be “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel”.
Although Gaza had already been under blockade since 2007, the tightened restrictions effectively halted the entry of essential supplies, triggering severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medical resources and worsening an already fragile humanitarian crisis.
Several human rights organisations have concluded that Israel used starvation as a method of warfare and a tool of displacement, aimed at forcing civilians to move from northern Gaza to the south.
By late 2025, at least 453 Palestinians had died due to severe malnutrition in Gaza, including 150 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Waiting lists
Despite the hunger and deprivation, Hammad refused to flee south.
She said reports of abuse against displaced Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints left her terrified of making the journey. More than anything, she feared for her daughter’s fragile health.
As Nour slowly began moving her limbs and grasping objects, Hammad allowed herself a measure of hope.
“She was improving, but the doctors told me she needed to be urgently evacuated for treatment abroad, which was nearly impossible at the time.”
On 25 December 2024, Hammad travelled to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after hearing of a renowned paediatrician who might be able to help her daughter.
“I risked my life after hearing there was a skilled and compassionate paediatrician who might be able to help my daughter. I went to the hospital, but he was overwhelmed with a large number of injured patients,” she said.
“Medical staff told me to return after two days to see him. But two days later, the army stormed the hospital and detained him.”
The paediatrician was Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who was detained by Israeli forces on 27 December 2024.
According to his lawyers, Abu Safiya was subjected to repeated torture in detention, lost around 40 kilograms and suffered a serious deterioration in his health. He was recently placed in solitary confinement.
Meanwhile, Hammad continued trying to secure treatment abroad for her daughter, despite the strict Israeli siege preventing people from leaving the strip.
“She was given a medical referral to Italy,” Hammad said. “But we’ve been waiting for months, along with tens of thousands of other patients.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 17,757 people who need critical treatment abroad have been given medical referrals, including around 4,000 children.
However, due to severe Israeli restrictions, most remain on waiting lists.
‘Her health is hanging on an Israeli permit that would determine whether she can improve or remain disabled’
– Samar Hammad
Although Israel agreed to a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt in February, allowing up to 50 patients a day to leave Gaza, only 1,204 patients had been evacuated through Rafah and Kerem Shalom by 20 May.
After everything she had endured, Hammad said her daughter’s future now depended on a decision beyond her control.
“I have managed to rescue Nour from imminent death in the incubator, found water and milk for her during the harshest times, and took her to hospitals for physiotherapy throughout two years of genocide,” Hammad said.
“Now her health is hanging on an Israeli permit that would determine whether she can improve or remain disabled for the rest of her life.”
