Thirty-one premature newborns were successfully transferred from Gaza’s main hospital to another hospital in the south on Sunday and will be transferred to Egypt, according to health officials, days after Israeli troops raided the site. Hundreds of other seriously injured patients also remained stranded there. Agency AP has given the news. The condition of babies at Shifa Hospital attracted worldwide attention after the revelation of photographs showing doctors attempting to keep them warm. As Israeli soldiers battled Palestinian militants outside the hospital, power outages damaged incubators and other equipment and left food, water and medical supplies short.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on social media that “very sick” newborns, as well as six health professionals and ten staff family members, had been evacuated. He said he was transferred to a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah for urgent care.
A WHO delegation visiting the hospital on Saturday reported that 291 people, including newborns, trauma patients with highly infected wounds and others with spinal cord injuries who are unable to walk, were still there. .
According to WHO, about 2,500 displaced persons, mobile patients and medical workers fled Shifa hospital on Saturday morning. It was reported that 25 medical personnel stayed in addition to the patients.
“The patients and health workers they spoke to were fearful for their safety and health and asked to be evacuated,” the agency was quoted as saying by the AP in its report.
Israel has long claimed that Hamas has a huge command center in and beneath Shifa, as part of a broader claim that fighters employ residents as cover. It has positioned the hospital as a key target in its fight to destroy Hamas’s hold on Gaza, following the militant group’s massive offensive into southern Israel six weeks ago that left more than 1,200 people dead and sparked clashes.
Hamas and medical workers have denied the allegations, and opponents have called the hospital an example of Israel irresponsibly endangering the people of Israel. Thousands have been killed in Israeli attacks, and the besieged area suffers from severe shortages of food, water, medicine and gasoline.
