DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than two years after his oldest daughter, Kinda, was evacuated from the neonatal intensive care unit at the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, Samer Lulu beamed as he hoisted her into his arms.

The last time he saw Kinda was before she and a group of other newborns left Shifa Hospital in November 2023, after the electricity was cut, turning off the incubators keeping them warm enough to survive.

The Gaza City hospital complex is among those damaged by nearly two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas and experienced blackouts in the first month of the war as it was besieged by Israeli troops, who stormed it just before the evacuation.

Born prematurely, the babies had thin skin, their weight was dangerously low and their bodies were too small to survive without constant care. When blackouts set in, medical staff swaddled them in blankets, took them from the shut-off incubators and laid them side by side to replicate the heat they needed

Tracking the Gaza ceasefire

Keeping track of the status of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for a ceasefire that would end Hamas’ rule in Gaza and rebuilding the territory after a devastating war.