GAZA'S 11-ANGELS GAZES : EGYPT HONOURS PRECIS

JERUSALEM : Evacuated from Gaza as newborns 11 toddlers return home. They were taken to Egypt as premature babies after their hospital was raided.

When Sondos al-Kurd last saw her child, Bisan, in late 2023, she was a premature newborn fighting for her life in a hospital in Gaza City, which was engulfed in a war between Israel and Hamas.

On Monday last, their long agonizing separation came to an end as Bisan returned to Gaza after more than two years in Egypt.

'' When she saw me, she came straight into my arms,'' Ms.al-Kurd, 28, said in an interview. '' It felt natural, as if she knew I'm her mother.''

Bisan was one of 11 toddlers - born prematurely in Gaza and evacuated to Egypt in November 2023 -who traveled home to the enclave this week.

The emotional reunions have been a cause for celebration among Palestinians, though the children are returning to a territory ruined by two years of war, where plans for reconstruction have stalled.

The angels/children were brought back to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, which reopened in February.

They were then taken to the Nasser Hospital in the south of the territory, where they were reunited with tearful parents and given basic medical checkups.

Doctors said that the children had undergone an extraordinary transformation, having been evacuated in a perilous state and returning as healthy angels/toddlers.

Yet their return also shone a light on a painful chapter from the early days of the Gaza war.

The World Students Society thanks Adam Rasgon, Bilal Shbair and Iyad Abu Heweila.