‘My love’: grandmother weeps for baby boy born during Gaza war and killed by Israeli strike

“The boy was born early in the war, early, he was born a little over a month ago,” she said, her voice high-pitched from weeping and her despair showing on her face.

“My love,” she said, kissing Idres’ forehead before repeating “my love” in a near-whisper.

‘Living hell’ in the ruins of al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital

Idres’ body was placed on top of that of his mother, whose shroud was inscribed with the words “the martyr Wafaa al-Dbari” and the date of her death, December 12. Um Zeyad remained kneeling next to them, her hand resting on Idres.

The war was triggered by Hamas militants who rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people including babies and children and kidnapping 240 people of all ages to hold as hostages in Gaza, according to Israel.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has responded with a military onslaught and total siege of the densely populated strip that have killed more than 18,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Israeli warplanes and tanks pounded southern Gaza overnight and on Tuesday, and the United Nations said aid distribution to Gazans facing growing hunger had largely stopped because of the intensity of fighting in the two-month-old war.

In the southern Gazan city of Rafah, which borders Egypt, health officials said 22 people including children were killed in an Israeli air strike on houses overnight. Civil emergency workers were searching for more victims under the rubble.

The UN humanitarian office on Tuesday said limited aid distributions were taking place in the Rafah district, but “in the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely stopped over the past few days, due to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions of movement along the main roads”.

Aid flows were also restricted by a shortage of trucks in Gaza, a continuing lack of fuel, communications blackouts, and growing numbers of staff unable to travel to the Rafah crossing with Egypt because of the intensity of hostilities, it said.