Gehia Hamudawho was born two months premature while the war raged in the Gaza Strip, was moved to the southern part of the enclave as Israeli forces stormed the hospital in the northern part where he was being treated.

Trapped in the northern part, his parents have been seeing him ever since.

Sontos’ mother and Zakaria’s father look at pictures of Gehia, now five months old, on a mobile phone in their home in Jabalia in northern Gaza, which is cut off from the south by Israeli military checkpoints.

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Sondos stated that it is very dangerous to travel the 30 km distance from Jabalia to Rafa.

“There are armored cars and bulldozers. “My husband and I can’t go,” she said. “They would kill us. I’m afraid our son will end up living alone.”

Yehia was born on November 27, seven weeks after the start of the conflict that erupted when militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas invaded Israel, in an attack that killed 1,200 people, according to the Israeli count.

More than 34,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s offensive, which has turned most of the territory into rubble, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health authorities.

With communications cut off, it took three months before Gehia’s parents were able to contact the hospital where he was being treated in Rafa and make sure he was okay. They stayed behind in Jabalia, fearing that they would have nowhere to stay in Rafah.

“After three months, I saw his picture on the mobile phone. I want to hug him. I want to breastfeed him. Every day, my heart hurts. I can’t handle this,” Sodos said.

Gehia is being cared for by the nursing and medical staff at the Emirates hospital in Rafah.

Amal Abu Khatla, a nurse at the hospital, said Gehia’s health condition was difficult when he arrived from northern Gaza.

“After a week, thank God, his health condition improved but we lost contact with his parents, to the point where we thought the parents had been martyred (killed),” he said.

She said Gehia became “the son of the neonatal unit”, with everyone personally taking care of him: “Everyone loves him, we take a lot of care of him.”

In Jabalia, his father, Zakaria, can’t wait to see him again: “My only wish in life is to hold my son in my arms and for God to reunite us with our son,” he declared.