First baby born in Israel in 2026 welcomed in Jerusalem hospital

The first baby born in Israel in 2026 arrived at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in the capital at 1 minute past midnight, the hospital says.

The baby is the fifth child for Shira-Leah and Uri Rozman.

Other hospitals around the country also welcomed new babies just after the start of the new year.

Almo Inguda, 40, from Ashdod, gave birth at 1:36 a.m. at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, the hospital says. Her fifth son is the first baby born this year at the hospital.

Inguda says that when she immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia, “everyone in my family automatically wrote their date of birth on their identity cards as if we were born on January 1, so I didn’t want to give birth on that date. But of course, it’s not something that can be chosen, and that’s how it turned out.”

At Shamir Medical Center, Karin Shalkov, who works as a nurse there, and her husband, pediatrician Dr. Lior Shalkov, welcomed a baby boy at 1:11 a.m., the hospital says.