In a ward in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, all too close to pitched battles between Israeli troops and Hamas gunmen, lie some of the Palestinian enclave’s most vulnerable people, hospital officials say: roughly three dozen premature babies, the incubators needed to keep them alive now without power.
Al-Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital complex, has been cut off from electricity for days. Israel has not allowed fuel — which could power generators — into Gaza, arguing that Hamas, which rules the territory, has ample reserves and would divert additional shipments for military purposes.
On Saturday, Palestinian health officials announced that one baby who had been born premature had died at the hospital. Unless power was restored to keep the incubators running, the others could face the same fate, Dr. Mai al-Kaila, the health minister for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, said.
The fighting around Al-Shifa has intensified as Israeli troops advance to the hospital’s gates. Israeli and American officials say the hospital hosts an underground Hamas military command center, suggesting the Israeli military intends eventually to storm the site. Hamas and hospital officials have rejected the claims.
As Israel’s aerial bombardments intensified in October, more than 60,000 displaced people were sheltering inside Al-Shifa’s sprawling complex. Israeli authorities have been calling on Palestinian civilians to leave the north, and as the fighting drew nearer last week — including four strikes inside the complex — many holdouts, both patients and staff members, finally fled, according to the Gaza health ministry.
People sheltering
at main entrance
Internal medicine
and dialysis
People sheltering
at main entrance
Internal medicine
and dialysis
But the babies’ fragile health makes moving them difficult, complicating Israel’s stated goal of emptying Al-Shifa of civilians before its troops attempt to enter the compound.
The Israeli military said late Monday that it was working to deliver mobile incubators and respirators to Al-Shifa hospital in an attempt to help evacuate the babies. In a statement, the Israeli military said it was “willing to work with any reliable mediating party to ensure the transfer of the incub