The Emirati Hospital in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah received Baby Malak, a days-old, tiny baby without a name. When her family was assumed dead, physicians called her “Unknown.”
The chubby 6-month-old is the star of her de facto guardian, 32-year-old doctor Amal Abu Khatleh's wards. Abu Khatleh takes Malak, literally "angel," around the facility, as other staff members kiss and cradle her.
Malak was found in a tree near her family's wrecked home in central Gaza, allegedly hurled into the branches by a November hit that killed her relatives.
After she was transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza for treatment, Dr. Nasser Bolbol, chief of the neonatal section, told NBC News that her umbilical chord indicated Malak was 2 days old.
Bolbol said he and his colleagues assumed she was caught by an angel, hence her name. “Seeing this baby without family makes me sad. He stood next to her incubator and murmured, "Very sad."
Malak and 30 other premature newborns were moved to the Emirati Hospital because to power outages, supplies running low, and Israeli-Palestinian fighting nearing the hospital.
After two of the babies were taken in by relatives and the rest were sent to Egypt for treatment, Malak was left alone with no family or name.
Abu Khatleh stated, “I was really moved and got so close to her,” and once the Gaza Health Ministry approved permission, she took Malak “home with me and promised to make it up to her after what she has been through.”
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