Devastation in Gaza: Premature babies pay price

NT Bureau, Agencies

Gaza City: At least two premature babies died in the neonatal intensive care unit of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital on Saturday after the facility lost power, reported Al Jazeera.

Thirtyseven other babies in the neonatal intensive care unit are also at risk of losing their lives as the hospital runs out of fuel, said the hospital’s director Mohammed Abu Salmiya.

The fuel provides electricity to the incubators, allowing warm temperatures and a constant oxygen flow.

Thirty-seven other babies, also in the neonatal intensive care unit, are at risk of losing their lives as the hospital runs out of fuel to power their incubators, Director Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces “are not evacuating people from hospitals; instead they are forcibly evicting the wounded onto the streets, leaving them to face inevitable death”.

“Unfortunately, we’ve lost two out of 39 babies because of the power outage,” Abu Salmiya, the head of the largest medical complex in Gaza, said.

“We are talking about premature babies who require very intensive care.”

Fighting near the al-Shifa Hospital has increased in the last few days, reported the Associated Press. Salmiya said that the Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement.

He explained that the two babies died because of a lack of fuel at the hospital which provides electricity to the incubators allowing for warm temperatures and a constant flow of oxygen. The hospital has been under siege and a target of fierce Israeli attacks.

“They died due to low temperatures and a lack of oxygen. We are now using primitive methods to keep them alive,” the director said.

The World Health Organization said early Sunday that it has lost communication with its contacts at al-Shifa.

“As horrifying reports of the hospital facing repeated attacks continue to emerge, we assume our contacts joined tens of thousands of displaced people and are fleeing the area,” it said in a post on X.

At least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. A total of 1,200 people have been killed in Israel.