‘Miracle baby’ burned in tent fire beating the odds – but mum says she’s shunned by society
Dalal is the little Syrian girl they never thought would survive.
Now four years old, despite horrific burn scars and no hands she is confounding the doctors, her family and everyone who knows her, all over again.
We watch as she concentrates hard on manoeuvring a pen between the stumps which she’s been left with. It is tough work for the little girl with no fingers.
She’s bent right over the paper she’s working on, trying hard to write her name as well as simple numbers. We notice she can manage to draw outlines which resemble hearts.
Dalal’s mother says other children ‘scream in fear’ and they are struggling to get her into school
This young girl so badly mutilated by fire has a big heart herself despite her physical disadvantages.
Her eyesight’s not brilliant either, with heavy skin scarring all over her face making it hard to open them fully. Dalal’s skull is bald but for tufts of hair at her nape.
But her older sisters, Gazal and Hala, tie the little hair she has into a ponytail like theirs.
Doctors fought for months to save Dalal’s life not really believing they would succeed or she would have the strength for the multiple operations she needed to pull through.
When we first saw her, she was swathed from head to toe in bandages and had many horrific burns.
Dalal, 18 months old at the time, was pulled out of the fire barely alive
We first reported on her when she was a baby. Fire had ripped through her family’s tent, which had been pitched in a field in northwest Syria in the middle of the winter of 2021.
Her family had fled their home in Idlib province and were close to the Turkish border – along with tens of thousands of others trying to escape the regime bombing and fighting between Bashar al Assad’s troops, anti-regime groups and other militias.
The winter was bitter and the temperature in their tent near to freezing. There was a fire stove the adults lit to try to keep the family of six small children warm. But somehow the tent caught fire.
Her eldest sister, Yasmin, who was about 10, desperately tried to save Dalal, who was then a baby. But Yasmin was quickly overwhelmed by flames and smoke and could not be resuscitated.
Dalal’s dad stayed with her as she underwent numerous operations in Turkey
Four of her younger siblings managed to scramble to safety or were helped out, but Dalal was already engulfed in flames. By the time she was pulled out, she was horrifically burned and barely alive.
Turkish authorities gave permission for her to be whisked across the border as a medical emergency and she was raced to Mersin hospital – unaccompanied by any family members at this stage.
A team of doctors and nurses worked tirelessly to save her.
‘Skin black like cole’
Lead surgeon Dr Cagatay Demirci told me then he never believed they’d be able to save her. She was so badly injured; her burns were so deep and she was so young, the challenges seemed insurmountable.
Her skin was “black like coal in many places”, the doctor said.
“Our team went to work on her and did what we could, but we left that night thinking she would not make it through the night,” he said at the time.
“But when we came back in the morning, she was still here, still alive. And we thought okay, this baby wants to live.”
Dr Demirci (with Dalal in 2021) says she’ll need many more surgeries as she grows
And as she continued to pull through each complex operation – and there have been many – she confounded everybody. They called her the “miracle baby”.
But surgeons couldn’t save her fingers and had to amputate all her digits. Her face was terribly burned, the flames eating away at her eyelids, lips, hair, ears and hair follicles and feet.
Dr Demirci said then: “She will need many, many operations throughout her whole childhood as she grows and develops.”
Sky’s coverage of her astonishing survival was spotted by a single mum in Britain who was so moved by Dalal’s tale of tragedy and endurance, she set up a JustGiving page.
Within a few weeks, Lisa Cavey saw tens of thousands of pounds had been raised which would pay for an entirely new life for Dalal’s family.
First her father, Abdul Fattah, travelled to Turkey and stayed with her for months as she had operation after operation.
When it became apparent her survival depended being out of the Syrian battlefield and remaining in Turkey to receive medical help, the donations ensured passports were organised and funded the rest of the family.
Dalal has been having laser surgery
Turkish authorities agreed her heavily pregnant mother and four siblings could join her.
The money helped pay rent for the family, now living as refugees in southern Turkey alongside four million other Syrians who fled the war across the border. It also contributed to medical help – because Dalal is likely to need multiple operations for years to come.
Ms Cavey has been in regular contact with the family ever since. “I cried when I saw the news report about Dalal,” she told me.
“Being a mother myself, I realised that could have been my daughter. They are of a similar age.
“I just felt it was so wrong that this had happened, and the family were in this situation through no fault of their own. I felt compelled to take some action.”
A Turkish-based charity called INARA, set up and run by journalist Arwa Damon, took on Dalal’s case and helped connect her with doctors and physiotherapists who’ve been helping her with her injuries ever since.
“Dalal’s case is exactly why I founded INARA,” she explained.
Dalal’s family are in Turkey alongside four million other Syrians who fled the war
“To be an organisation that is willing and able to take on complex cases that require critical surgeries over the course of a child’s development,” adds Ms Damon.
“Often, what I saw from my experience in war zones is that these children tend to fall through the cracks in access to medical care or do not receive the many surgeries they need and as such end up relegated to a life in the shadows.
“INARA through its medical and mental health programme basically gives them the ability to see that their life is not over, that they do deserve and can be a part of society, even though it might be hard.”
Brave Dalal ‘not accepted’
But the war in Gaza, as well as the global economic downturn, has seen a depletion of public finances and much aid support for humanitarian groups diverted.
Doctors believe Dalal needs multiple expensive surgeries and are investigating if it’s possible to create fingers for her, perhaps by performing an intricate transplant of some of her toes to her hands.
Nothing has been decided yet as they explore the best options, but any surgery is expensive and Turkish authorities are dealing with inflation at around 70% and a crippling cost of living crisis.
Her mother, Fatima, is praying for more medical treatment for her daughter and describes heartbreaking moments in the playground when other children catch sight of Dalal.
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“They scream in fear,” she says. “She is not accepted by the society. That is a fact.” She says she’s struggling to get any school to admit Dalal for the same reason.
Dalal is astonishingly independent, shrugging off help as she pulls on socks herself using her stumps – and climbs up the kitchen doorframe positioning her severed arms to hold herself up.
Each achievement is applauded by her family – but her now five siblings tell us of the hours of frustration, the tears and anger too.
“She cuts salad with us,” her eldest sister Gazal says. “She wants to do everything but she cries and says ‘why don’t I have fingers?'”
Alex Crawford reports from Southern Turkey with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Syria producer Mahmoud Mosa.
World
Trump doubles down on Putin criticism – as Russia offers Ukraine a date and location for peace talks
Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of Vladimir Putin – adding he will know soon if the Russian leader is just “tapping” him along.
The US president told reporters at the White House that he believed his counterpart in Moscow may be intentionally delaying ceasefire talks, while he also expressed disappointment at heavy Russian bombing over the weekend.
While Mr Trump has so far stopped short of imposing sanctions – to avoid, he says, “screwing up” negotiations – he warned his stance could change.
Ukraine Q&A: Are we any closer to war ending?
The president said: “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little differently,” adding that he “can’t tell you” if Mr Putin wanted peace.
Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
His comments in the Oval Office came minutes after Russia’s foreign minister announced that the Kremlin had offered Ukraine a second round of talks on 2 June in Istanbul.
Kyiv did not immediately respond to the proposal, which Sergei Lavrov said would see Moscow hand their proposals for a potential peace deal directly to Ukraine.
“We hope that all those who are sincerely, and not just in words, interested in the success of the peace process will support holding a new round of direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul,” Mr Lavrov added.
Later on Wednesday, Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said his government was “not against” further meetings, but called for Russia to deliver its memorandum to Kyiv beforehand.
Meanwhile, Mr Lavrov also hit out at Germany for agreeing to finance the production of long-range missiles in Ukraine, accusing Berlin of showing it is “already a participant in the war”.
However, German leader Friedrich Merz declined to say that his country would hand over the Taurus missiles that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – who was in Berlin on Wednesday – has long wanted.
Ukraine’s need for ammunition has become all the more urgent after Russia launched some of the largest aerial assaults of the war so far over the weekend.
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Russia said it had downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight, while Ukraine said it had struck several weapon production sites.
Kyiv, in turn, said Moscow had launched 88 drones and five ballistic missiles since Tuesday.
World
Hamas’s Gaza chief ‘eliminated’, says Netanyahu – but military sources say they cannot confirm death
Hamas’s Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been “eliminated”, according to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But Israeli military sources have said they are not yet able to confirm the death.
Hamas has also not yet confirmed the apparent killing of its leader.
Meanwhile, with Gaza on the brink of famine, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations broke down in tears as he spoke of the suffering of its people.
Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour broke down in tears as he spoke of the suffering of people in Gaza
Riyah Mansour told the Security Council: “Children are dying of starvation. The images of mothers embracing their motionless bodies. Caressing their hair, talking to them, apologising to them, is unbearable.”
He added: “I have grandchildren. I know what they mean to their families. And to see this situation over the Palestinians without us having hearts to do something is beyond the ability of any normal human being to tolerate. Flames and hunger are devouring Palestinian children. This is why we are so outraged as Palestinians everywhere.”
Sinwar was one of Israel‘s most wanted and the younger brother of the Palestinian militant group’s former leader Yahya Sinwar.
The older sibling was the mastermind of the October 7 2023 attack, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, with around 250 others taken hostage into Gaza.
The attack triggered Israel’s assault on Gaza which decimated the territory, with more than 53,000 people killed, mostly women and children, and over two million displaced, according to health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally of fatalities.
Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel in October 2024. File pic: AP
Yahya Sinwar was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops in Gaza last October. His younger sibling was believed to have then become the head of Hamas’s armed wing.
Speaking to the Knesset on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu included Mohammed Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed in Israeli strikes. Later, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sources said they were not yet able to confirm the death.
The prime minister said: “We have killed tens of thousands of terrorists. We killed (Mohammed) Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar.” He did not elaborate.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s claimed could not be confirmed. Pic: AP
Mohammed Sinwar had reportedly been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza on 13 May and Mr Netanyahu said on 21 May that it was likely he had been killed.
The Israeli military had said it struck a Hamas command centre under the European Hospital in the Sinwars’ hometown of Khan Younis, and it declined to comment on whether Sinwar was targeted or killed.
At least six people were killed in the strike and 40 wounded, Gaza’s health ministry said at the time.
Sinwar rose through ranks
Like his older brother, Mohammed Sinwar joined Hamas after it was founded in the late 1980s as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He became a member of the group’s military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades.
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Sinwar rose through the ranks to become a member of its so-called joint chiefs of staff, bringing him close to its longtime commander, Deif, who was killed in a strike last year.
Read more from Sky News:
Humanitarian chief talks of Gaza ‘catastrophe’
UN boss condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza
“In the last two days, we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” the Israeli leader told the Knesset.
Mr Netanyahu also spoke about how Israel was “taking control of food distribution”, a reference to a new aid distribution system that has been criticised and boycotted by humanitarian groups and the UN.
One killed at site of aid hub
The development comes after one person was killed and 48 others injured when forces opened fire on a crowd that overwhelmed an aid hub in Gaza, according to local health officials.
Palestinians have become increasingly desperate for food after almost three months of Israeli border closures. A blockade has recently been eased.
People broke through fences around the distribution site on Wednesday, and a journalist with the Associated Press said they heard Israeli tank and gunfire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares.
It was not yet known whether the death and injuries were caused by Israeli forces, private contractors or others.
The Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which set up the hub outside Rafah, said its military contractors had not fired on the crowd but “fell back” before resuming aid operations. Israel said its troops nearby had fired warning shots.
The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system, saying it will not meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food to control the population.
Israel has vowed to seize control of Gaza and fight until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and exiled, and until the militant group returns the last 58 hostages, including around a third thought to be still alive.
‘This is a man-made catastrophe’
Meanwhile, a US trauma surgeon who has been working in Gaza urged the UN Security Council to not “claim ignorance” about the humanitarian devastation.
Dr Feroze Sidhwa said: “Let’s not forget, this is a man-made catastrophe. It is entirely preventable. Participating in it or not allowing it to happen is a choice.
“This is a deliberate denial of conditions necessary for life: food, shelter, water and medicine. Preventing genocide means refusing to normalise these atrocities.”
The UN World Health Organization has documented around 700 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command centres and to hide fighters.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate have been charged with rape and other offences in the UK.
Andrew Tate, 38, faces 10 charges, including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, relating to three women.
His brother Tristan Tate, 36, faces 11 charges relating to one woman – including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.
The charges were authorised in January 2024, but full details have only been released now.
Bedfordshire Police issued an international arrest warrant for the brothers over allegations, which they “unequivocally deny”, said to have occurred between 2012 and 2015.
The Tate brothers are facing separate allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering in Romania.
They are also accused of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in a different case, which has been sent back to prosecutors.
They are due to be extradited to the UK following the conclusion of proceedings in Romania.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan outside a Bucharest court in January. File pic: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via Reuters
A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have authorised charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate for offences including rape, human trafficking, controlling prostitution and actual bodily harm against three women.
“These charging decisions followed receipt of a file of evidence from Bedfordshire Police.
“A European Arrest Warrant was issued in England in 2024, and as a result the Romanian courts ordered the extradition to the UK of Andrew and Tristan Tate.”
The spokesperson added: “However, the domestic criminal matters in Romania must be settled first.
“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendants have the right to a fair trial.
“It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
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Representatives for Andrew Tate have been contacted by Sky News for comment.
Lawyer Matt Jury, of McCue Jury & Partners, representing several alleged British victims of Andrew Tate, said: “We welcome the clarity from the Crown Prosecution Service that our authorities are working to ensure the Tates face justice here in the UK – they cannot be allowed to escape extradition.
“At the same time, we ask once more that CPS admit its mistake in failing to prosecute Tate when he lived in the UK and finally charge him for the rape and assault of the other three women, our clients, who originally filed criminal complaints against him as long ago as 2014 but were failed by the system.
“They deserve justice, too.”
The allegations were subject to a police investigation, which was closed in 2019.
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