Health workers evacuate 31 ‘very sick’ babies from Gaza hospital
Visiting WHO teams says 291 patients still remain at Shifa hospital — Gaza’s largest; they include babies, trauma patients with severely infected wounds, and others with spinal injuries who are unable to move; four babies die before the visit hirtyone premature babies were safely transferred from Gaza’s main hospital to another in the south on Sunday, and will be moved to Egypt, health officials said, as scores of other critically wounded patients remained stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound.
The fate of the newborns at Shifa Hospital had captured global attention after the release of images showing doctors trying to keep them warm. A power blackout had shut down incubators and other equipment, and food, water and medical supplies ran out as Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants outside the hospital.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social
TPremature babies evacuated from al Shifa Hospital receive treatment in Rafah on Sunday.
media that the “very sick” babies were evacuated, along with six health workers and 10 staff family members. He said they were taken to a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where they are receiving urgent care. They were taken in ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent.
A WHO team that visited the hospital on Saturday said 291 patients were still there, including the babies, trauma patients with severely infected wounds, and others with spinal injuries who are unable to move. Four babies died before their visit, according to Mohamed Zaqout, director of Gaza hospitals.
About 2,500 displaced people, mobile patients and medical staff left Shifa Hospital on Saturday morning, the WHO said. It said 25 medical staff remained, along with the patients.
Israel has long alleged that Hamas maintains a sprawling command post inside and under Shifa, part of its wider accusation that the fighters use civilians as cover.
Hamas and hospital staff deny the allegations, and critics have held up the hospital as a symbol of what they say is Israel’s reckless endangerment of civilians. Thousands have been killed in Israeli strikes, and there are severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel in the besieged territory.
Israel’s military said Yemenbased Houthi rebels had seized a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea but
said no Israelis were on board and that it was not an Israeli ship.
Heavy clashes were reported in the builtup Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza overnight into Sunday.
Death toll
More than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. A further 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants
Around 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which the group dragged some 240 captives back into Gaza and shattered Israel’s sense of security. The military says 52 Israeli soldiers have been killed.