Nour Abu Samaan was born on October 7, 2023, just three hours before the start of what would become a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Her arrival was met with joy by her mother, Samar Hammad, but that happiness lasted only a day.

On October 8, as Nour rested in her mother’s arms, Israeli missiles struck nearby. The air thick with smoke and toxic gases, the newborn began to struggle for breath.

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“My daughter suddenly choked in my hands,” Samar told Al Jazeera Arabic. “Her colour turned blue, her eyes rolled back, and she lost all movement”.

Doctors later diagnosed Nour with movement paralysis caused by the inhalation of toxic gases. At just two days old, Nour’s life shifted from a nursery to a hospital bed, beginning a heavy journey of pain.

A miraculous escape

Samar spent a month at al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in north Gaza, watching over her daughter in the intensive care unit (ICU) as the war closed in. North Gaza bore the brunt of Israel’s bombardment in the initial days of the war. Soon, the region was placed under a siege by the Israeli military, and people were forced to flee.

As the siege intensified, Samar managed to evacuate Nour just before the hospital was bombed. She did not know then that her daughter would be the sole survivor of the deadly attack on al-Nasr Hospital, including the ICU. After Israeli forces stormed the medical facility, they disconnected life-support systems from the premature babies left behind; their decomposed bodies were discovered on their beds days later.

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Nour’s father, Othman Abu Samaan, 42, watches his daughter with a heartbreak that time has not healed. The injury left Nour with severe stiffness in her limbs, a condition doctors describe as more debilitating than partial paralysis.

“We have tried repeatedly to make her sit, but she cannot,” Othman said.

As the family struggles, official data from Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirms a surge in such cases. Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s Information Unit, reported that 1,200 children in Gaza now suffer from spinal cord injuries and paralysis directly resulting from Israeli attacks.

A pain beyond her age

Six-month-old Misk al-Jarou has been struggling with health issues since her birth. She was born with severe deformities, lacking clear joints in her hands and feet, while her twin sibling died in the womb.

Though Misk survived, she is burdened with health issues her mother, Warda al-Jarou, attributes to the constant inhalation of toxic gases during pregnancy.

For families like that of Misk, daily life is an exhausting cycle of navigating overwhelmed hospitals and chasing elusive medical appointments.

“Misk is in so much pain, and every day I feel her condition getting harder,” Warda told Al Jazeera.

Her struggle reflects a wider “epidemic” of deformities. The Ministry of Health recorded 322 cases of congenital defects in 2025 alone – double the pre-war rate. Al-Waheidi, the head of the health ministry’s Information Unit, attributes this spike to famine, toxic exposure from millions of tonnes of projectiles, and the collapse of prenatal care.

The two years of relentless bombardment have triggered demographic shifts unseen in Gaza’s history. For the first time, population growth in the Strip has turned negative, hitting -1.3 percent. Birth rates plummeted by 38 percent in 2024 and a further 13 percent in 2025.

According to al-Waheidi, the infants who are born face dire odds. In 2025, more than 4,000 women had premature deliveries, and at least 4,800 babies were born with low birth weights – double the pre-war figure. Tragically, 457 infants died in their first week of life last year alone.

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Hours of torment

In the corridors of the Mustafa Hafez school in western Gaza City, Ramez Abu Hajeela struggles to keep a medical pressure mask on his two-year-old son, Mohammed Abu Hajeela. Before dawn on July 3, 2025, an Israeli strike hit the school shelter, killing 14 of Ramez’s relatives. Mohammed emerged with third-degree burns covering 18 percent of his body.

Now, he must wear a compression mask for 20 hours a day. “When he wakes up, we feed him and prepare him for the coming hours of torment,” Ramez said. Mohammed is one of approximately 1,000 children in Gaza who have undergone amputations or suffered severe permanent scarring.

Al-Waheidi warns that for children like Nour, Misk, and Mohammed, the only hope lies in immediate medical evacuation. Currently, some 4,000 children in Gaza require urgent treatment abroad. They were expected to be allowed to travel via the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the world. But Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on movement.

According to the Health Ministry, more than 20,000 patients and wounded people are currently waiting to travel abroad for medical treatment. Despite the overwhelming need, official data provided by al-Waheidi shows that only 154 children have been allowed to leave Gaza since the crossing partially reopened in February.

“Every day the Rafah crossing remains closed, we lose lives,” al-Waheidi said. “More than 470 children have already died while waiting for a chance to be saved.”