Woman gives birth to quintuplets after hormone treatment

Even in a territory with one of the world’s highest birth rates, today’s arrival of quintuplets in the Gaza Strip got people excited.

Doctors performed a caesarian section on Layla Abu Nofal, 25, to deliver the five healthy babies – four boys and a girl.

The babies lay side-by-side in Shifa Hospital nursery as the maternity ward of Gaza City’s largest hospital buzzed with Palestinian TV presenters, cameramen and photographers.

Flustered doctors and midwives struggled to maintain order amid the excitement.

Mrs Nofal’s husband Mohammed said they expected the first four babies, “but the fifth was a surprise” after his wife took hormone treatments to get pregnant.

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

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

Mohammed, a 28-year-old policeman who earns €356 a month, said he wasn’t sure how they’d afford to raise their seven children alongside the 11 members of his extended family.