After giving birth, Hananeh had to return to Palestine with her children
Hanane Bayuk (26), a resident of Gaza, gave birth to three children together in Jerusalem before the war began. And after a few days the children will be one year old. They saw their mother only once after birth. Hanane Bayuk fears that she will die without children.
Hanan’s three children were Nazoa, Noar and Nazmeh. They were born on August 24, 2023. After giving birth, Hananeh had to return to Palestine with her children. Because his permit to travel to Israel had expired.
Hanane endured many sufferings and hardships for seven long years to conceive a child. Have to undergo in vitro fertilization or IVF (in test tube fertilization) treatment. Finally, she was able to give birth at Al Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. This Palestinian woman had to get a permit in advance to go to Jerusalem.
Hanan’s children were kept in incubators after birth. Hanane did not have much time to see the newborns; About an hour and a half. After that he had to return to Gaza. Hanane said hospital authorities asked him to leave because his permit to stay in Jerusalem had expired.
Born prematurely, Hanan’s three children had to be kept in an incubator for several weeks. As hospitals in Gaza did not have enough incubators, the babies had no choice but to be kept in East Jerusalem. Hanan was supposed to go there again last October. But before that, on October 7, a war broke out between the Palestinian independence organization Hamas and Israel.
The only way into Israel from Gaza is through the Erez terminal. Hanane applied on October 5 for a permit to travel to East Jerusalem via that route. But two days later, Hamas fighters detonated an explosion inside the terminal.
According to information provided by Israeli officials, 1,198 people were killed in an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters in Israel on October 7. In response, Israel started rampaging in Gaza from that day. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 40 thousand 265 people have been killed so far in the Israeli attack. The ministry did not say in detail how many of them were Hamas fighters and how many were civilians. According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, most of the dead were women and children.
Heba Idris (27), a besieged resident of Gaza, is in the same situation as Bayuk in Hanan. He is also unable to return to his only daughter Saida in Jerusalem. Saidar was born prematurely two months ago at Makassed Hospital.
Heba Idris wants to bring her newborn daughter back to her husband Saleh’s home in northern Gaza. Heba and Saleh couple have left their house nine times so far due to Israeli airstrikes. Saleh saw his baby daughter only in pictures. A teary-eyed Heba said, ‘I want to see my daughter, I am suffering a lot to be separated from her.’
Hanane Bayuk has also been forced to leave the house. He now lives in a camp for displaced people in the south. He is spending days in a tent with seven members of his in-laws. “It’s driving me crazy,” he told AFP. It took me a long time to conceive. Now I cry all the time.’ He also said that he could not get news about the newborns because the phone network in Gaza is not good because of the war.
“I sometimes wonder if I could bring my daughters back to Gaza before I die,” Hanane said. Because I couldn’t kiss them even once. But again I hold back my emotions and tell myself, it is better for them to be safe far away from the war.’
Hatel Khammaj, NICU director of Makassed Hospital, said that in normal times it would not have been possible to keep Nazoa, Noar and Najmeh in the hospital for such a long time. But now the birth rate in the hospital has reduced a lot. Because Israel has stopped allowing mothers from Gaza to enter that country. Many Israeli checkpoints stop traffic. Even those with permits do not receive special privileges in Jerusalem.
Khammaj also said, “Before the war started, there were seven to eight children from Gaza in the NICU of our hospital. 30 people can be served there at once. But no one got admission here after October. Apart from this, many sick people of the West Bank are not able to come to us.
