Premature Babies Evacuated From Gaza War Finally Reunited With Families

Palestinian toddlers who spent their first days of life in the darkened wards of Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital, swaddled together in blankets after Israeli bombardment cut power to their incubators, arrived back in Gaza on Monday after more than two years of medical treatment in Egypt. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams escorted eight of the children home, accompanied by three relatives and two medical staff; the Associated Press reported eleven toddlers arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on March 30, 2026. The discrepancy has not been officially reconciled.

The toddlers were among dozens of premature newborns in al-Shifa's NICU during the war's opening weeks. Doctors told the Associated Press that 50 premature babies were being cared for during the first week of fighting. When Israeli forces stormed the complex in November 2023, 31 were evacuated to Egypt; three died in Gaza, and four others died after arriving in Egypt in critical condition. Some parents still do not know what happened to their evacuated newborns.

The conditions preceding the evacuation were extreme. When blackouts cut power to the incubators, medical staff removed the infants, swaddled them in blankets, and laid them side by side to preserve the warmth their underdeveloped bodies required.

Samer Lulu, father of Kinda Lulu, one of the returned children, captured the reunion's complexity: "Our feelings are indescribable. This is the most important moment in our lives, especially since she is my first daughter. But our feelings are mixed with pain because of the reality we live in, a difficult reality, a reality with an uncertain future."

Ola Hijji, mother of Sulaiman Hijji, said she underwent an emergency caesarean section at eight months and her son was transferred to al-Shifa's NICU before she could follow him. "They took him from Al Helou Hospital to the neonatal intensive care unit at al-Shifa Hospital, and I haven't seen him since," she said. Of the reunion, she said simply: "It's a beautiful feeling."

Sundus al-Kurd waited nearly a year before learning whether her daughter Bisan had survived. After Israeli forces occupied Shifa, she was told Bisan could not be moved from her incubator. "I lived between despair and hope that my daughter might still be alive," she told the BBC. Bisan was eventually identified in an Egyptian field hospital through the pink bracelet assigned to her at birth. Sundus, who had lost another child, her parents and her brother before Bisan was born, waited at Nasser Hospital clutching a pink-embroidered dress for her daughter's return. The confirmation that Bisan was alive had felt, she said, "like a dream."

Not all parents were able to reach their infants quickly. Sawsan Abu Odeh, whose twin daughters Rateel and Raseel were born October 13 at al-Shifa, traveled by ambulance on a six-hour journey through the Sinai desert to Cairo after learning the girls had been transferred there from El Arish. Palestinians from Gaza cannot travel through Egypt without a visa, making any other route legally impossible. "My girls are alive and well," she told Al Jazeera by phone from Cairo.

The Gaza Health Ministry has recorded more than 72,200 people killed since the war began in October 2023. Despite a ceasefire in effect since October 2025, the Health Ministry reported that Israeli attacks have continued on a near-daily basis, killing more than 700 Palestinians since that agreement took hold. The returned toddlers represent only a fraction of the accounting still unfinished: some parents, the Associated Press reported, still have no information about what happened to their newborns after the November 2023 evacuations.