GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In labor and finding the pain unbearable, Asmaa Faraj, a 26-year-old mother, was unable to deliver her first baby in a hospital. Instead, her mother took control of the situation and helped her give birth at home during the recent Israeli war on Gaza.

“The shelling was heavy on the night of July 18. Going to a hospital was a great risk. My family could not flee the house, so we remained there, to keep my baby safe. We tried to call the ambulance to pick us up and take us to a health center, but they were all busy with the wounded,” Asmaa told Al-Monitor. She said she had no other choice but to let her inexperienced mother help her to deliver.

Asmaa’s mother, in her 50s, said she had never imagined that she would have to help her daughter give birth someday, as she had never before delivered a baby. “I used a kitchen knife to cut the umbilical cord and threads from clothing to stitch up the wound. There were great risks, but I pulled it off,” she said.

While Asmaa was lucky enough to hold her first child, whom she named Bakr, in her arms, Rasha Abu Awdah was not. She died, at the age of 30, two hours after her baby was delivered.