CBS News
Gaza mother “lost hope” that her son, born in a war zone, had survived. Now they’re finally together.
On the morning of Oct. 15, Noor Rihan’s house in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, was bombed by Israeli forces. Half of her family was killed, and a massive chunk of concrete landed on her back. Having spent three years trying to conceive, Rihan was eight months pregnant.
She was moved, bleeding, to the biggest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa. The medics there were overwhelmed by the number of dead and wounded pouring in as Israel retaliated for the brutal Oct. 7 attack launched by Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Amid the relentless bombardment, Rihan was rushed into an operating room and her baby was saved. The boy was put on a ventilator as his lungs had not fully developed.
“After the surgery, they took my son right away. I didn’t see him at all,” Rihan told CBS News. “I didn’t see his features or know what he looks like.”
She remained in the hospital for three days. She said there was no food or medicine, and dead bodies were piling up in the hallways.
“I had to leave. I didn’t know anything about my family. My house was destroyed, I didn’t know who was still under the rubble,” she said. “I didn’t even know if my husband was alive or dead or where they had buried the dead.”
With no money, and in pain from inflamed stitches after her surgery, she walked for an hour and half to reach a school in the Jabalia refugee camp run by the United Nations’ aid agency UNRWA. She found her husband there, wounded but alive.
About a week later, she said the school was hit by three missiles, so she decided to leave again — but first, she wanted to see her son.
She went back to Al-Shifa hospital, but they told her if she took her baby, he would die in her arms outside the hospital. Rihan made the painful decision to leave her newborn son. She went to another nearby school seeking shelter, hoping she could visit her tiny boy often.
For three days, Rihan said Israeli army troops surrounded the school.
“Other women were giving birth inside the school, without a doctor. We Gazans were stitching each other’s wounds.”
She said the soldiers shouted orders through megaphones for everyone in the school to leave, two by two, carrying nothing but their IDs.
“I was holding my 5-year-old brother’s hand. He was wounded and kept telling me, ‘I can’t walk, Noor. We are walking on glass.’ I asked if I could carry him; they [Israeli forces] said, ‘No, leave him.'”
“In Gaza, our children, instead of walking around carrying their toys, they are walking around holding their dead siblings,” Rihan told CBS News. “This is what Gaza is like.”
After leaving the school, Rihan went back to Al-Shifa again, hoping to stay with her son. She said a doctor told her that only God could help now. He offered his condolences in advance, explaining that her child was being kept alive by machines running on a rapidly dwindling fuel supply. Israeli forces were expected to besiege the hospital, underneath which they said Hamas was operating a command center.
“I asked him to give me my son before the siege. He said, ‘If you take him, it’s the same thing, he will die on the way because of his immature lungs, and the machines aren’t operating at full capacity due to the lack of fuel.'”
“I had to leave and move to the south, leaving my heart behind with my son,” she said.
As per Israel’s orders, Rihan joined the exodus of Palestinian civilians heading to the south of Gaza. At the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, she learned that Al-Shifa hospital was under siege. Israel said it had launched a “precise and targeted” ground operation inside the hospital.
“I considered my son dead,” she said. “My son was on a ventilator, and they cut off the electricity and destroyed the generators. I lost hope that my son was alive.”
But Rihan’s baby, along with dozens of other fragile newborns clinging to life inside Al-Shifa hospital, would soon gain the world’s attention as photos of them wrapped in aluminum foil to keep warm spread across the globe.
Medical Aid for Palestinians
Rihan saw the photos, but she didn’t know which of the babies, if any, was her son. She frantically contacted aid organizations and anyone else she could to find out if he was even still alive, but for 15 days, Rihan was unable to learn anything about the fate of her child.
“Imagine, a mother just trying to learn the news of whether her son is alive or dead. Knowing
that even if he was alive, he was still going to die,” she told CBS News. “But there was this hope, this one-percent hope.”
Then she learned that on Nov. 19, in an operation carried out by the Red Crescent with help from the U.N., dozens of babies were moved from Al-Shifa to the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza.
Clinging to the glimmer of hope, Rihan and her husband went to the Emirati Hospital and finally learned that their son was still alive. But she still wasn’t able to meet him.
“The doctor told me, ‘Listen, you are not feeling well. Some of your family were killed, you lost your house, you are going through a lot and you already have postpartum depression. How will you handle it?'”
Later, she was shown pictures, and said her little boy “was in terrible condition” and didn’t even “look like a human.”
“He was so weak that you could see all his ribs,” she said. “I couldn’t hold him. He was smaller than the palm of my hand.”
Then, in another humanitarian operation, 28 babies were moved from Rafah across the Gaza border to the city of Al-Arish, in Egypt. Rihan’s tiny boy was among them. Twenty-three of the vulnerable infants were then transferred to a brand new hospital in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, outside Cairo, and the majority of them have since recovered.
On Dec. 5, Rihan finally got the required permits to leave Gaza and join her son in Egypt.
She told CBS News the first time she saw her little boy was in Al-Arish, 50 days after he was born. After a nightmarish start in life, there’s hope for Rihan and her baby boy, Ayman, whom she can now hold in her arms.
Courtesy of Noor Rihan
“It was like a dream to meet my son,” she told CBS News, but she added that her joy is still only partial: “I wish my husband could be here to see his son. My husband hasn’t seen his son for two months, not even a photo, there is no communication in the north [of Gaza].”
Like the handful of other mothers who were able to come to Egypt to join their babies, they’re eager for their whole families, including their husbands, to be reunited.
And while they’ve escaped the hellscape of Gaza, the tiny babies rescued from the war zone still face an uncertain future. Most are now ready to be discharged, to go “home,” but few have homes to return to and, in some cases, no families, either.
CBS News
Hurricane Milton rips roof off Tropicana Field — Tampa Bay Rays stadium that was used as staging site for responders
Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, was badly damaged Wednesday night as Hurricane Milton slammed the region. Video posted by CBS affiliate WTSP showed that the fabric that serves as the domed building’s roof had been ripped to shreds, exposing the stadium lights.
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue confirmed that there were no injuries in the incident. It was not immediately clear how much damage there was inside the stadium.
Drone video posted on social media showed the roof completely ripped to shreds with debris all over the field.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Dave Moore also posted images of the damaged stadium on social media.
WTSP reported that Tropicana Field had been hosting thousands of linemen and National Guard members as they prepared to respond to damage from the storm. Photos from earlier this week showed rows of cots covering the baseball diamond.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said in a social media post that the staging area had already been relocated before the roof was damaged.
CBS Sports, citing the Rays media guide, reported that Tropicana Field features the world’s largest cable-supported domed roof and is “built to withstand winds of up to 115 miles per hour.”
According to the National Weather Service, Albert Whitted Airport, which is located about six minutes away from Tropicana Field, recorded wind gusts up to 101 mph during the 10 p.m. hour.
The stadium, located in St. Petersburg, opened in 1990 and initially cost $138 million, according to The Associated Press. It was due to be replaced in time for the 2028 season with a $1.3 billion ballpark.
After making landfall in Florida with a Category 3 status, Hurricane Milton weakened to a Category 1 storm and was expected to weaken as it moves over the Atlantic Ocean.
CBS News
Rafael Nadal, 22-time Grand Slam champion, is retiring from tennis after next month’s Davis Cup finals
Rafael Nadal announced Thursday he will retire from tennis at age 38 following next month’s Davis Cup finals.
Nadal won 22 Grand Slam singles titles during an unprecedented era he shared with his rivals in the so-called Big Three, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
“Really, everything I have experienced has been a dream come true,” Nadal said in an announcement on social media. “I leave with the absolute peace of mind of having given my best, of having made an effort in every way”
The Spaniard indicated his decision was related to persistent injury problems.
“The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations. It is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end,” Nadal said.
Nadal’s unrelenting, physical style of play – every point pursued as though it were his last, sprinting and sliding into place for that high-bouncing bullwhip of a lefty forehand – made him one of the greats of the game and the unquestioned King of Clay, the slow, red surface on which he claimed his record 14 French Open championships.
/ Getty Images
That’s more than anyone, man or woman, won at any one of the sport’s four major tournaments, a dominance celebrated by a statue of Nadal that stands near the main entrance to the grounds of Roland Garros and in the shadow of its main stadium, Court Philippe Chatrier.
Nadal added Thursday that he was excited to finish his career at the Davis Cup, which will be played in Malaga, Spain.
“I am very excited that my last tournament will be the final of the Davis Cup and representing my country,” he said. “I think I’ve come full circle since one of my first great joys as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in Seville in 2004.”
Nadal has not played since the Paris Olympics, where he lost to old rival Djokovic in the second round of the singles tournament and reached the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles with Carlos Alcaraz.
“I think it is the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined,” he said.
In 2022, Nadal won his 14th French Open singles title at the age of 36. At the time, he told “CBS Mornings” he “couldn’t be happier” — despite playing through pain.
“Well, I’m used to it, first of all,” he told CBS. “At the end of the day, it’s about passion and about how much you love what you do. And doing it all my tennis career, I think I had the determination to keep going.
“It doesn’t matter the situation that brings me to the position that I am today, that is unexpected without a doubt because at the age of 36, I thought I would be doing other things, not playing tennis… But here I am, and I couldn’t be happier,” he said.
CBS News
Hurricane Milton’s impact on South Florida: Squally conditions, tornadoes, flight cancellations
MIAMI – Windy conditions continued in South Florida Wednesday evening as Hurricane Milton, a powerful Category 3 storm, made landfall on Florida’s west coast.
Milton was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 mph as it made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota. The storm is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds, flooding, and tornadoes as it moves across the state to the east coast.
South Florida experienced strong winds of 30 to 40 mph Wednesday, which are expected to continue through Thursday.
Milton’s impact on South Florida
Hurricane Milton spun at least two tornadoes in South Florida.
Earlier in the day, a tornado touched down along Alligator Alley in western Broward County near Collier County, though no damage was reported.
Another tornado touched down in the Wellington area of Palm Beach County, causing damage to some homes and bringing down trees.
All of South Florida had been under a tornado watch until 9 p.m. Wednesday. Several tornado warnings had also been issued for Broward County.
In recent days, South Florida has experienced a “one-two punch” of storms. A non-tropical low-pressure system brought heavy rain and flooding on Sunday and Monday, followed by Hurricane Milton’s approach on Wednesday, which was forecast to bring more rain and windy conditions through Thursday as the storm crosses the state.
The region remains under threat of flooding, with an expected rainfall of 4 to 7 inches or more.
Strong winds brought down a power line in Broward County near NE 28th Street in Wilton Manors.
Airports report delays and cancelations
Hurricane Milton continued to affect flights at South Florida airports on Wednesday.
Cancellations and delays were reported at Miami International Airport and at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.
Nearly 2,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled by Wednesday night, according to the tracking service FlightAware. That includes over 380 flights canceled at Tampa International Airport.
When will conditions improve?
CBS News Miami
“By late Thursday, things will begin to wind down,” said CBS News Miami chief meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. “Conditions will improve into Friday, and we’re looking forward to a quiet and tranquil pattern setting up for the weekend and into next week.”
On Friday, there will be a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. It will be cloudy with a 20% chance of rain in the day and 20% at night, according to NWS.
North winds will be around 14 mph with gusts as high as 23 mph during the day, and north winds of 10 to 13 mph with gusts as high as 22 will be seen at night.
CBS News Miami
Highs are expected to be near 86 and lows around 75.
Dangerous storm surge forecast for Florida
Forecasters warned of dangerous storm surge.
“The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the south of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves,” the hurricane center said.
“Rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches, with localized totals up to 18 inches, are expected across central to northern portions of the Florida Peninsula through Thursday,” the hurricane center said.
“This rainfall brings the risk of considerable flash, urban and areal flooding, along with the potential for moderate to major river flooding.”
Milton will also produce rainfall totals 2 to 4 inches across the Florida Keys through Thursday.
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Hurricane Milton rips roof off Tropicana Field — Tampa Bay Rays stadium that was used as staging site for responders
Fire torches 3 buildings, forces Minneapolis residents to leave
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