‘My heart told me she was alive’: Gaza mother reunites with baby after 2 years

A Palestinian mother in Gaza has been reunited with her infant daughter after two years of separation during the war, ending a search she said was driven by faith that the child had survived.

Sundus Al-Kurd now holds her daughter Bisan close outside a modest tent in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, embracing her tightly as if afraid to lose her again.

“When they told me she was alive, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like life had returned to me again,” Al-Kurd said.

The child, still unfamiliar with her mother, watches her quietly, hesitant but gradually drawing closer.

Al-Kurd’s story began on Oct. 22, 2023, when she was eight months pregnant at her home in Jabalia in northern Gaza before an Israeli strike upended her life.

“I lost my mother, father, sister and my young daughter at that moment,” she said.

Severely wounded, she was taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, where she underwent an emergency cesarean section.

Her newborn was placed in intensive care among premature infants.

Soon after, as Israeli forces advanced on hospitals and later entered Al-Shifa in November 2023, she was forced to leave while still injured, separating her from her baby.

“I cried so much. I didn’t want to leave her, but they told me I was in danger and that she would be fine,” she said.

A relentless search

After the hospital was raided by the Israeli army, premature infants were transferred to southern Gaza and later to Egypt for treatment. From that point, Al-Kurd began a relentless search, following any lead that might bring her to her daughter.

“I would look at photos of children and ask myself: Is this my daughter?” she said.

Despite pressure from others to accept her loss, she held on to hope. “My heart kept telling me she was still alive,” she added.

That hope turned into reality when relatives in Egypt located hospital records in the city of El Arish confirming the child’s identity.

“When they told me she was alive, I couldn’t believe it,” she said, pausing as she embraced her daughter again.

Now reunited, Al-Kurd is slowly building a bond with Bisan.

“Bisan doesn’t know me yet, but I will make that happen. I will tell her I am her mother and I waited for her all this time,” she said.

My ‘soul returned to me’

The first night her daughter slept beside her, she said she felt like her “soul had returned to me.”

Al-Kurd named her daughter Bisan after her sister, who was killed in the same strike.

More than 72,000 people have been killed and over 171,000 injured in a genocidal Israeli war in Gaza since October 2023. The assault was halted under a US-backed ceasefire that took effect last October.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 750 people have been killed and 2,090 others injured since the ceasefire, while 760 bodies have been recovered.

The ceasefire agreement was reached after two years of war that began on Oct. 8, 2023, and caused massive destruction affecting 90% of civilian infrastructure, with the UN estimating reconstruction costs at about $70 billion.

* Writing by Lina Altawell