A Gaza hospital has said it saved a baby boy from his mother’s womb after she died from wounds sustained in an Israeli strike.

Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd, who was nine months pregnant, barely survived a punishing night of missile strikes that rescue services across the territory said killed more than 24 people, including six members of the same family.

But by the time Kurd reached Al-Awda Hospital, she was “almost dead”, according to surgeon Akram Hussein.

Doctors were unable to save the mother but performed an ultrasound that detected the baby’s heartbeat.

They quickly staged an emergency caesarean section “and extracted the fetus”, the surgeon told AFP.

The newborn was initially in critical condition, but after receiving oxygen and medical attention was stabilised, said Raed al-Saudi, head of the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology department.

He was placed in an incubator and transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.