Israel says ready to evacuate babies from Gaza hospital
Israel’s military says it is ready to evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest hospital, where Palestinian officials said two newborns had died and dozens more were at risk after fuel ran out amid intense fighting in the area.
Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza Strip on Nov . 9, 2023. Photo by TPS
As the humanitarian situation worsened, Gaza’s border authority said the Rafah crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders after closing on Friday.
Hamas said it had completely or partially destroyed more than 160 Israeli military targets in Gaza, including more than 25 vehicles in the past 48 hours.
An Israeli military spokesperson said Hamas had lost control of northern Gaza.
At a news conference late on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the deaths of five more Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
The Israeli military said 46 had been killed since its ground operations there began.
Israel’s three major TV news channels, without citing named sources, said there was some progress toward a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu said he would not discuss details of any possible deal, which would reportedly involve 50 to 100 women, children and elderly being released in stages during a three to five-day pause in fighting.
According to news reports, Israel would release women and minor Palestinian prisoners from its jails and consider letting fuel into Gaza, while reserving the right to resume fighting after the deal.
Gaza residents said Israeli troops, who went to war to eliminate Hamas after its bloody cross-border assault on October 7, had been clashing with Hamas gunmen in and around Gaza City where the Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, is located.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, who represents the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said the hospital suspended operations after fuel ran out.
He said two babies had died in an incubator as a result and there were 45 babies in total.
He said Israeli shelling killed a patient in intensive care and Israeli snipers on rooftops fired into the medical complex from time to time, limiting people’s ability to move.
The World Health Organisation expressed “grave concern” for the safety of everyone trapped in the hospital by the fighting and said it had lost communications with its contacts there.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the Israeli military would help evacuate babies from the hospital.
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the hospital’s director, told Al Jazeera TV, that protecting patients was the priority.
“We contacted the Red Cross and informed them we ran out of water, oxygen, fuel, and everything,” Abu Salmiya said.
“The premature babies, patients of the intensive care, and even wounded people couldn’t survive with the lack of electricity … If the occupation forces want to evacuate the wounded people to any place in the world that is safer than the Gaza Strip, we are not against that.”
Israel has said doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so it can tackle Hamas gunmen who it says have placed command centres under and around them.
Hamas denies using hospitals this way.
Medical staff say patients could die if they are moved and Palestinian officials say Israeli fire makes it dangerous for others to leave.
Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter called the evacuations “Gaza’s Nakba” – a reference to mass dispossessions of Palestinians after Israel was founded in 1948.
Ahmed al-Mokhallalati, a senior plastic surgeon at Al Shifa, said there had been continuous bombardment for more than 24 hours.
He said most hospital staff and people sheltering there had left, but 500 patients remained.
“It’s totally a war zone. It’s a totally scary atmosphere here in the hospital,” he said.
The military wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, said it was “engaged in violent clashes in the vicinity of Al Shifa Medical Complex, Al Nasr neighbourhood, and Al Shati camp in Gaza”.
Al Nasr is home to several major hospitals.
AAP
