Four Hours Hanging from a Tree: The Survival of Baby Omar Al-Saqqa in Gaza

By Shaimaa Eid

Basil sometimes finds it difficult to care for Omar. He and his mother try their best to give him the love and comfort he needs, but it can never replace the unique tenderness of his parents.

On December 7, 2023, the family of journalist Basil Al-Saqqa experienced moments of pain and suffering beyond the imagination of the human mind. An Israeli airstrike targeted the house of his 33-year-old brother Muhannad on Al-Sika Street, east of Khan Yunis, without warning.

The airstrike caused a massacre that killed ten people and injured five others, including Muhannad, his wife Laila Al-Shorbaji, 27, their child Muhammad, 3, and other displaced relatives who had taken refuge in their home.

“It was a tough day… We lived through hours of anxiety after neighbors informed us that my brother’s house had been bombed,” Basil says.

Basil and his mother had been displaced from their home in Hamad Town, north of Khan Yunis, on December 5, 2023. They had moved to another house in the city of Rafah, approximately 12 kilometers from where Muhannad and his family were located.

Menstrual Cycles – A Silent Nightmare for Displaced Women in Gaza

The bombing and air raids were extremely violent that night, and Basil was unable to go out and reach Muhannad and his family.

Civil Defense vehicles and ambulances rushed to the site and managed to retrieve Muhannad, his wife, their eldest son Muhammad, and the rest of the displaced people. However, they failed to locate Muhannad’s infant son, Omar, who was just two months old.

Rescue crews spent four continuous hours digging through the rubble, trying to recover bodies and searching for Omar. When they lost hope, they assumed his body was buried beneath the debris and informed the family of his death.

“After the Civil Defense teams left and the noise of their machinery stopped, relative calm returned to the area… and that’s when the shock occurred,” Basil continues, his voice trembling.

A neighbor heard the faint groaning and crying of a baby. Omar had been hurled by the force of the explosion and was hanging from the branch of an olive tree. He remained suspended there for nearly four hours, his cries drowned out by the chaos and noise.

Neighbors contacted the ambulance and Basil’s family, all of whom were overwhelmed with mixed emotions—grief over Muhannad’s death and joy that one child had survived the massacre.

‘My Soul Went Dark’ – A Final Call Before a Bomb Took Her Father

Omar was taken to Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Yunis, where doctors conducted a full examination. Miraculously, he was completely unharmed—not a single scratch on his body.

“The moment they told us Omar had been found was nothing short of a miracle, after hours of despair,” says Basil.

Basil sometimes finds it difficult to care for Omar. He and his mother try their best to give him the love and comfort he needs, but it can never replace the unique tenderness of his parents.

Now, more than a year later, Omar is still living with his uncle Basil and his grandmother in a tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, after their home in the Hamad Towers area was also destroyed by Israeli forces.

Omar Al-Saqqa, the baby who embraced death and survived, is not just a survivor—he is a witness to a crime that can never be erased. From his first cry beneath the rubble to his quiet resilience today, Gaza holds the story of a people who cannot be broken, no matter how deep their pain.

The Streets of Despair: Life, Loss, and Survival in Northern Gaza’s Inferno

More than a year has passed since that night changed Omar’s life forever, yet its echoes remain etched in the memory of all who heard his story or lived through its details. Omar, who emerged from the rubble without a single injury, carries in his eyes a silent testimony to the horror of what happened. Every time he cries, his grandmother says, “Maybe he’s looking for his mother… for the warmth of a chest that once held him, then vanished.”

His cries are no longer just about hunger or cold – they are the lingering echo of an explosion that still roars in the memory of a child who hadn’t even reached two months old when his entire family was taken from him forever.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Shaimaa Eid is a Gaza-based writer. She contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.