'I'm not sure she recognises me': Gazan parents share agony of being separated from babies
ITV News Correspondent Rachel Younger visited a hospital in East Jerusalem looking after a group of toddles who are separated from the parents in Gaza
In a brightly coloured room in a children's’ hospital in East Jerusalem, triplets Najwa, Noor and Neshma have recently celebrated their first birthday.
Playing alongside them is Saida, a tiny, dark-haired girl with a cheeky smile, who was born a few weeks before them.
A handful of nurses and volunteers sing to them and offer up cuddles.
But their parents, who should be enjoying every precious moment, are nowhere to be seen because the war in Gaza has trapped them on different sides of the impenetrable wall that surrounds it.
In normal times, the Makassed Hospital - on the edge of the West Bank - offers neonatal care to mothers from Gaza who need complex attention.
All four children were born prematurely; IVF babies whose arrival were even more special after years of waiting.
Saida weighed 700g, barely more than a bag of sugar, while the triplets weighed around a kilogram each.
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Even before the war started, mothers from Gaza were only given limited permits, meaning that after just a few short days, with their babies still in a perilous condition in incubators, both mothers had to return home.
Their children were so small, they hadn’t even had the chance to hold them.
Agonisingly, Hanan and Hiba were both meant to return to collect their daughters on October 8.
But on October 7, Israel was attacked by Hamas and war trapped them in Gaza.
The only contact their parents have had with them since has been over FaceTime; when their parents appear on the screen and the girls stretch out their arms to fathers they have never met.
Trying to contact one of the most dangerous places in the world isn’t easy.
Saida’s parents, who are living in a tent close to Khan Younis, often struggle to get any connection even if they can find the money to charge their phones.
All of them know their children, barely 50 miles away from Gaza but totally unreachable, are being well cared for. An army of doctors, nurses and volunteers make sure of that.
But every day they miss irreplaceable milestones.
Noor starting to crawl, Neshma learning the drums, Saida attempting to blow her first kisses.
Hiba sobs as she describes all that’s she’s missed. She’s glad her daughter is safe, but is desperate to cuddle the little girl who she last touched on September 4, 2023.
"I'm not sure she recognises me over the phone," she said.
"The nurses tell me she does. I hope she'll remember my face so when we finally meet I won't feel like a stranger."
Even then she didn’t dare to do more than touch her finger.
Since then she’s missed her daughter’s first teeth coming through. She says she is desperate to be reunited before Saida takes her first steps.
As she speaks, Hiba kisses the photo of her daughter on her phone.
Saida can’t feel them, but that doesn’t stop them coming. A mother’s love as fierce as the war that separates them both.
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