Relatives gathered by a tiny sandy grave in Gaza on Friday, where they had buried a baby girl, who lived just a few days after doctors delivered her from the womb of her dying mother following an Israeli airstrike.

The baby had been given the names Sabreen, after her dead mother, and Rouh, which means “soul”.

Her mother, Sabreen al-Sakani al-Sheikh, 30-weeks pregnant, was seriously injured when the Israeli strike hit the family home in Rafah, the southernmost city in the besieged Gaza Strip, on Saturday night. The baby’s father Shukri and three-year-old sister Malak were killed.

Doctors delivered the baby by Caesarean section, but the mother died of her wounds. Dr Mohammad Salama, head of the emergency neo-natal unit at Emirati Hospital, who had been caring for the baby, said the infant suffered respiratory problems and a weak immune system, and died on Thursday.

“I and other doctors tried to save her, but she died. For me personally, it was a very difficult and painful day,” he said by phone. “She was born while her respiratory system wasn’t mature, and her immune system was very weak and that is what led to her death. She joined her family as a martyr,” Salama said.

“Maybe if it weren’t for the Israeli war on Gaza and the devastation of hospitals, we would have been able to help more children survive."