The fifth was a surprise, says quintuplets father

THE birth of quintuplets brought chaos to a maternity ward in a Gaza City hospital, with flustered doctors trying to keep order among a crush of photographers and a bewildered father.

Layla Abu Nofal, aged 25, delivered the five healthy babies — four boys and a girl — by Caesarean section in the Shifa Hospital.

“The fifth was a surprise,” said her husband, Mohammed.

He said his wife took hormone treatments to get pregnant, but that they had expected four babies.

The quintuplets created a frenzy at the maternity ward, where the babies lay side by side with midwives peering over them.

The couple already have a 5-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.

“Everybody in the family picked a name” for the babies, Mohammed Abu Nofal said, but he only remembered them with some prodding from his mother-in-law: Mohammed, Ahmed, Hussam, Abdul Rahman, and Iman.

Abu Nofal, a 28-year-old policeman who earns $470 a month, said he wasn’t sure how they would afford to raise their seven children, alongside 11 members of his extended family.

“I don’t think we’ve got enough money for diapers and baby milk to be honest with you,” he said.