Premature babies who escaped Gaza war finally reunited with families

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There was an emotional reunion for at least 10 families Monday in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, and the beginning of a new chapter in the dramatic story of more than two dozen children born prematurely into the chaos of Israel's war with Hamas.

In November 2023, at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital, dozens of premature babies wrapped in aluminum foil in a desperate bid to protect them from frigid weather grabbed international headlines as the hospital, under siege by Israeli forces, ran out of fuel to keep its life-saving medical equipment running.

In an operation carried out by the Red Crescent, with help from the United Nations, more than two dozen tiny babies were moved across the southern Gaza border into Egypt for urgent medical care. Most of them survived the ordeal, but they were unable to return home to Gaza as Israel kept the border crossing sealed until early this year, with operations against Hamas still taking place daily.

As a result, many families stuck in Gaza — including some of the parents — had not been able to meet the children. But that changed Monday.

"Today, a half an hour from now, I will meet my daughter for the first time, as if I were giving birth to her today. It's an indescribable feeling," Sundus Al-Kurd, one of the mothers gathered in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, waiting to meet their children, told CBS News.

"I have mixed emotions," Al-Kurd said. "Fear that my daughter will not recognize us or accept us, and happiness as a mother reunited with her child once again."

A total of 28 babies arrived in Egypt in 2023. Seven died and some had made it back across the border during previous ceasefires, but the Ministry of Health in Gaza said 10 were brought back to the territory by bus on Monday. A few of the parents had managed to join their babies — now about two-and-a-half years old — in Egypt, leaving the rest of their families behind in Gaza.

The children were accompanied on their return by nurses, two of whom had remained with them throughout their entire ordeal. They helped keep in touch with the families back in Gaza and provided them with photos and videos of the children growing up in Egypt.

"People carry their children in their hands, but I have been holding my son on the phone, as you see," Ahmed Al-Harsh, the father of one of the children, told CBS News as he waited for the reunion, scrolling through photos of his son growing up in Egypt. "I won't be able to provide him with this life [the one in Egypt]. He is two and a half years old now. I lived his life through these photos."

"I only saw my child one time, in the hospital, when I took his mother and buried her," Al-Harsh, who said he lost 12 family members in the war, told CBS News. He said his wife died of shrapnel wounds, but they managed to rescue her baby. "I am happy to see my son after two and a half years, but my happiness isn't complete without my family and loved ones. My father was hoping to see my child."

Monday marked the last chapter of the painful story for the premature babies, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, the pediatric director at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, told CBS News as the children arrived.

"Thank God, after two years, they came back, and their fathers and mothers recognized them. It was really a very great moment to see families reunited with their babies," he said.

But for their families, the end of one ordeal, even with a ceasefire technically in place in the decimated Palestinian enclave, does not mean the end of the struggle.

"Life is hard in Gaza, and he won't receive the same care as he did in Egypt," Al-Harsh told CBS News.

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