Babies were evacuated from al-Shifa and transferred to southern Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict news
Thirty-one premature babies, trapped in the hospital without life support equipment, were evacuated by ambulance.
The most vulnerable patients at al-Shifa Hospital – dozens of premature babies in critical condition – were evacuated to the south of the Gaza Strip.
Of the 39 babies left without incubators when al-Shifa Hospital was left short of fuel and medical supplies after Israeli forces attacked on Wednesday, 31 have recovered.
Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in Gaza, told journalists that “the 31 premature babies in al-Shifa Hospital… have been evacuated” along with three doctors and two nurses, and “the preparations of the go ahead” to enter Egypt.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said the babies were on their way to southern Gaza hospitals in six Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances, in the effort is coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the organization said in a post on its Facebook page.
Israeli forces ordered doctors, patients and displaced persons at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza to evacuate the medical building, forcing some to leave at gunpoint, Palestinian doctors and officials told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
A WHO team that visited the hospital on Saturday said there were still hundreds of patients, including many in critical condition, trauma patients with badly infected wounds, and others with spinal cord injuries. cannot move.
“Patients and health workers they spoke to feared for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation,” the group said, describing al-Shifa as a death zone.
Doctors said that four babies had died during the attack.
The babies were moved to the south of Gaza “in preparation for their transfer to the Emirates Hospital in Rafah”, the PRCS said.
Later in the day, Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said at a press conference that the babies had been transferred to Tal al-Sultan Hospital in Rafah and that they will be sent to Egyptian hospitals with their families tomorrow.
