Embryo- Inside a small room in the maternity ward of Ibn Sina Specialized Hospital in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, Hoda Abu Younis has been living with her triplets for more than 4 months, and she is accompanied in the room’s bed by her mother-in-law, who was accompanying her when she was transferred from the Gaza Strip to Jenin to give birth in mid-September. /Last September.
Hoda’s story began with her delay in giving birth for 13 years, and after repeated attempts to implant the embryos, the last attempt succeeded in carrying triplets, and it was decided on the basis of that that her birth would be in the West Bank, due to the weakness of the health system in the Gaza Strip, and after coordination, she was transferred to Ibn Sina Hospital. Specialist in Jenin.
Hoda says, “My pregnancy was difficult, especially after many attempts at transplantation, and I was exposed to the risk of miscarriage because my body structure could not bear the heavy weight of pregnancy. And because Gaza’s hospitals were suffering from general weakness with the continuation of the siege imposed on the Strip for many years, they transferred me to a fetus, and here I gave birth to my twins.” In the seventh month, they needed to enter nursery for two months.”
Incomplete joy
During the period of Hoda’s newborns being treated in the nursery, the war on Gaza had begun and it became impossible for her to return with her children and her mother-in-law to her home in Khan Yunis. She says that the hospital turned into her home, and all her dreams that she had built in her imagination throughout the months of her pregnancy, that she would return to Gaza with long-awaited children, and that they would be received in a private room, and with a great celebration, all of that evaporated and her only concern became that her husband in Gaza would remain alive. To see his children.
“My husband was dreaming of seeing his children. After 13 years without children, he was impatiently waiting for our return, and we had prepared everything for when we would return home with them. The house was bombed, the family was abandoned, and we were prevented from returning. There is no hope for our return yet, and there is no Way. My kids are 4 months old and we live in a hospital room.” Abu Younis says.
In the same section of the hospital, Afnan Abu Issa, her three children, and her relative have been living for more than 6 months without any hope of an immediate solution to their condition, which is very similar to the story of Hoda Abu Younis.
Afnan was due to give birth in Ibn Sina Hospital in late July, three months before the start of the war on Gaza, when her three children were admitted to the nursery and the date of their discharge from the hospital was decided after their condition stabilized at dawn on the eighth of last October. That is, on the first day of the war.
“I was transferred to Jenin to place my twins in an advanced nursery, the likes of which are not available in hospitals in the Gaza Strip. After their health condition stabilized, they allowed us to leave, but on the other hand, coordination for our arrival to the Erez military crossing stopped due to the start of the aggression against Gaza.” Abu Issa says.
She added, “God blessed me with two sons and a daughter after 7 years of deprivation. My joy was indescribable, and my husband and my family were waiting for them to leave the nursery safely so that we could return home. But today my children are 6 months old and my husband knows nothing about them, so he does not know what they look like.” “.
The hospital turned into a home
Abu Issa’s relative, Mrs. Sabah, 60 years old, describes their life as very difficult. They have been staying in the hospital for 6 months and never leave it, and there is no communication with their family in Gaza. Even the scarce communications, if available, are short voice calls and without video due to the power and Internet outages in Gaza.
“Their father has not seen their pictures since the beginning of the war. We are talking about nearly four months. How can a father who waited 7 years to have children endure not seeing pictures of his children for 4 months, and not monitoring their growth, motor and sensory development? We live all the time on our nerves, there is no communication.” Let us reassure them, and there is no way for us to return to Gaza. I pray to God day and night that the war will stop and that we will be reunited,” says Mrs. Sabah.
She added, “We are residents of Al-Bureij camp. All of our homes were destroyed, and their families left and dispersed. Some of them left for the south and some of them stayed in Al-Bureij. And here, in Jenin, we were stranded for a lot, not to mention living in the hospital for such a long time.”
As 100 days have passed since the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the conditions of Gazan patients in hospitals in the West Bank are getting worse, after the cessation of coordination with the Palestinian liaison to facilitate their return to their families in Gaza, and they are forced to remain in hospitals until the war stops. Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin includes approximately 15 families from different areas of the Gaza Strip, living in rooms in the different departments of the hospital.
The suffering of each family varies depending on the reason for their presence in Jenin, but they share many daily details, the most important of which is their distance from their families, deprivation of communication with them, and their inability to leave the hospital due to the difficulty of providing another shelter.
Mini Gaza
Maysaa Safi, 30 years old, says, “I am a mother of three children who I left in Gaza. I came with my daughter, Arjwan, who is suffering from a stomach bleed, to undergo surgery for her. I was eight months pregnant. While I was here, my health condition deteriorated and I developed pre-eclampsia, and the doctors were forced to perform a cesarean section on me.” Before my pregnancy was over, I gave birth to my child, Muammar, and today I am with two children here in Jenin who suffer from complex diseases, and the rest of my children are in Gaza.”
Safi had come with her daughter, who had suffered from a lack of oxygen since birth and was being treated periodically at Ibn Sina Hospital to undergo stomach operations to stop recurring bleeding. But she was stuck in the hospital with her baby, Arjwan, and her newborn, Muammar.
Safi cries as she talks about her three children, whom she left with their father in Gaza. She says that one of the most difficult things for any mother is to be away from her children throughout these months, especially since they need her in the smallest details of their lives.
She added, “In the last call between me and them about a week ago, my 5-year-old daughter said to me, ‘Mama, why did you leave us and go?’ Are you sure you will come back?” Her question was very hard on my heart. I miss them, and all the time I fear that I will receive any news about them being bombed or missing. We are living in difficult days, our distance from them is very harsh, and the war is unfortunately dragging on.
The Gazan families who reside compulsorily in Ibn Sina Specialized Hospital in Jenin believe that what relieves each one of them of his longing for his family and his fear for them is their presence with each other and their support for each other, while they say aThe night raids that Jenin is going through, the destruction of buildings and roads, and the bombing by drones, make them feel like it is a mini-Gaza.