‘Whose is he?’: A Gaza father’s fight for a child who might not be his

Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Mohammed Lubbad found himself being pulled out of the rubble of his home. An Israeli strike had hit his family’s house, just a few days after the genocidal war on Gaza began.

It was October 13, 2023 – the day his trauma began, and the day his search for a child who he has never met, and cannot be sure was ever born, began.

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Mohammed was transferred from his now-destroyed home in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya to the Indonesian Hospital for treatment.

A trickle of information started to reach him. One of his two daughters had survived, the other – five-year-old Rana – had died, along with his mother, his brother, his brother’s wife, and their child. But his wife Amal, eight months pregnant, had disappeared.

First, Mohammed was told by hospital staff that Amal had been taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where a Caesarean section had been performed, leading to the delivery of a healthy baby boy, his son.

But then came the news – amid the chaos of a war that was devastating Gaza and already killing hundreds at the time – that Amal had been transferred to al-Shifa Hospital due to her condition, and had died from head trauma and abdominal wounds on October 22.

Mohammed mourned his wife, as he had mourned his daughter Rana and other lost loved ones. But his attention soon turned to the mystery of his son. Was he alive? And where was he?

Mohammed Lubbad with his only surviving daughter, Jana, age four, the sole remaining member of his immediate family [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Mistaken identity?

“Imagine that between every search for a family member,” Mohammed, a 35-year-old computer programmer, told Al Jazeera, “every catastrophe, every loss of a loved one, every tragedy – we would gather and console ourselves and then ask the question again: where is the child?”

By the end of October, he had a lead. His brother-in-law had been told the baby might be among a group of premature infants who had been at al-Shifa Hospital.

“The staff told us there was a baby matching these details: born at the end of the eighth month of a pregnancy, and transferred from Kamal Adwan around October 13-14,” he said. “But unfortunately, there were no clear details or even a proper registration.”

As the uncertainty grew, it emerged that a baby closely matching his child’s description had been identified by another family and registered under that family’s name, opening up a new chapter of confusion – and a bitter dispute.

Al Jazeera reached out to members of the other family – who are not being named for privacy reasons – but they did not wish to be interviewed for this article.

“We kept saying this child matches the circumstances of our baby,   who was transferred from Kamal Adwan on the same day,” Mohammed said, highlighting the lack of accurate medical documentation at the time.

But amid escalating war conditions and the Israeli siege of al-Shifa Medical Complex in November 2023, access became extremely dangerous, and accurate medical documentation scarce. Meanwhile, global attention focused on the premature infants trapped inside the hospital, with fear growing that a power cut brought on by the Israeli siege would lead to staff being forced to turn life-saving equipment off.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Gaza’s police investigations department confirmed the dispute, and said that it had arisen after two women in similar circumstances gave birth prematurely. Both babies initially survived and were placed with other premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, but amid Israel’s attack and the accompanying power outage, several of the babies died.

Testimonies from hospital staff indicate that one of the babies born to the two dead mothers was among the babies who didn’t survive, leaving one baby at the centre of the dispute.

Severe communication blackouts added to the difficulty in getting information. By December 2023, Mohammed found out that the premature babies at al-Shifa would be transferred to Egypt as part of a humanitarian medical evacuation.

Fearing that the child would be taken out of the country, Mohammed found out that the babies would be taken to a hospital in Rafah before leaving Gaza.

The father left for Rafah immediately. But he was too late – the babies had already been evacuated to Egypt.

Mohammed Lubbad has gathered documents and testimonies that he says indicate a child recently returned to Gaza from Egypt may be his son [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

No reunion

At the hospital, Mohammed tried to explain his predicament to the staff. One doctor sympathised, and suggested the possibility of a blood test to verify paternity. But now that the child had been evacuated to Egypt, that was off the cards.

So instead, Mohammed waited for the eventual return of the evacuated children. The wait has been long – more than two years – but eventually, on March 31, the children arrived in Gaza.

Footage from the return of the now-toddlers shows joyous scenes, with mothers hugging children they have been prevented from seeing for so long.

But there has been no happy reunion for Mohammed.

He went with his relatives to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, to try and see the child he believes to be his, but the family the child was officially registered to was also there.

“A minor dispute broke out between us over the child,” Mohammed said. “Medical investigators intervened and listened to both families, and were surprised by the strong similarities between the two cases.”

The police investigations department says that the baby was wearing an identification bracelet that indicated that he was not Mohammed Lubbad’s son, but emphasised that, as a result of a loss of records at Kamal Adwan Hospital and a lack of supporting scientific evidence, the initial registration of the baby under the other family’s name cannot be considered conclusive.

Mohammed strongly believes the child is his, and insists on a DNA test to settle the matter.

“The DNA test is the decisive factor,” Mohammed said. “I am ready for any outcome, whether he is my child or belongs to another family. What matters is certainty.”

The problem for Mohammed is that DNA testing is unavailable in Gaza. Al-Shifa Hospital says that is because the specialised laboratories used for such testing have been destroyed or rendered non-operational during the war.

“Gaza currently lacks any precise scientific forensic tools,” police investigators said in a statement. “What is required is either the provision of DNA testing equipment inside Gaza, or the facilitation of the urgent transfer of samples through international institutions to accredited laboratories in Egypt or Jordan.”

“The primary objective is to reach a definitive result that fully ends the doubt,” the statement added. “Leaving the case unresolved scientifically has profound human and psychological consequences for both families.”

That is precisely how Mohammed feels, unable to get a final answer that will allow him to move on.

“Any father in my place can imagine how difficult this is,” he said. “I’m close to a psychological breakdown that is affecting my entire life and work.”

“All I want is to end the dispute,” he added, calling on domestic and international bodies to push for a solution. “This should not be impossible.”

Mohammed, who is now the sole parent of his remaining four-year-old daughter Jana, refuses to give up. He plans to escalate his efforts by organising a protest with family members outside al-Shifa Hospital.

Israel’s war has robbed the father of his wife, one of his daughters, and other family members, but he is adamant that he has a son out there. And until he gets an answer, he feels unable to move on.

“The psychological impact is deep and ongoing,” Mohammed said. “I can’t work or live normally. I’m confused; my whole life has stopped.”