A newborn baby rescued from her late mother’s womb after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza that killed her family has passed away despite the best efforts of doctors to save her.

Tiny Sabreen Jouda, who had been named after her mother, had fought for life after being delivered prematurely by emergency Caesarean section in a hospital in Rafah.

Her home had been hit by an airstrike shortly before midnight Saturday, taking the lives of her father and four-year-old sister as they slept, and leaving her mother, who was 30 weeks pregnant, critically injured.

First responders who pulled the family from the debris noticed her mother’s pregnancy and rushed her to hospital for a C-section.

Doctors worked tirelessly to revive the baby, refusing to give up as she weakened, supporting her breathing and carefully stimulating her chest until she was stable enough to be placed in intensive care at another hospital.

Rami al-Sheikh, uncle to little Sabreen, confirmed she had passed away in hospital on Thursday after her health declined and medical teams were unable to save her.

‘God had taken something from us but given us something in return’ with the baby surviving after her family passed, he said near Sabreen’s grave in a cemetery in Rafah.

‘But (now) he has taken them all. My brother’s family is completely gone. It’s been removed from the civil registry. There is no trace of him left behind.’

The baby’s mother reached the emergency unit at the city’s Kuwaiti hospital in a critical condition with injuries to the head and abdomen, and passed away shortly after the baby was delivered.

Sabreen had been pictured shortly after, born around a month and a half premature, underweight and struggling to breathe.

She weighed just 1.4kg (3.1lbs) when she was born.

Doctors had described Sabreen’s survival as a ‘miracle’ earlier this week.

They suggested later on Sunday that there had been some improvement in her condition against the odds, but warned risks still remained.

Doctor Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital, said: ‘She passed away to join her family. I went and completed all the procedures at the hospital today, and brought the girl’s body home.’

‘I and other doctors tried to save her, but she passed away. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,’ he said.

‘She was born while her respiratory system wasn’t fully developed, and her immune system was very weak and that is what led to her passing. She joined her family.’

‘[Sabreen’s] grandmother urged me and the doctors to take care of her because she would be someone that would keep the memory of her mother, father, and sister alive, but it was God’s will that she passed,’ Salama said.

Sabreen’s paternal grandmother, Ahalam al-Kurdi, had travelled to the hospital and said she would take in her grandchild to raise as her own.

‘Welcome to her. She is the daughter of my dear son. She is my love, my soul,’ al-Kurdi said before news of her passing.

Initially, the girl was going to be called Rouh — a name her elder sister, Malak, had come up with that means ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’.

But it was ultimately decided that she should be named Sabreen — a tribute to the mother who protected her and gave her life even after she herself had passed.