Israel offers Gaza hospital evacuation for babies

The Israeli army said it would help evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest hospital Sunday after three newborns died during a power outage caused by fierce fighting outside, which Palestinian officials say has been “terrorizing” the hospital staff and civilians trapped inside.

The Israel Defense Forces said they will allow passage from three hospitals total in northern Gaza and have also opened an additional route for civilians to evacuate south.

“Following repeated calls by the IDF to Gazan residents to evacuate from northern Gaza for their own safety, the IDF is enabling a passage from the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals, both on foot and in ambulances,” the IDF said in a statement.

Israel’s intense bombardment just outside of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has run rampant in recent days as its more than one-month war in the disputed territory intensified, opposition leaders said.

While Israeli fire has not struck the hospital, it has been “terrorizing medical officials and civilians alike,” Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said.

When asked about the IDF’s promise to help evacuate 45 babies in Al-Shifa, Al-Qidra said, “We have not been informed about any mechanism to get the babies out to a safer hospital. So far we are praying for their safety and not to lose more of them.”

Despite Israel saying Sunday that people could safely evacuate from Al-Shifa, Hospital Director Mohammad Abu Selmeyah told Al Arabiya television that there was no safe pathway out of the hospital.

The hospital is also out of reach to the newly wounded, according to Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nassar Hospital.

Warning: Graphic images

“Shifa hospital now isn’t working, no one is allowed in, nobody is allowed out, and if you are wounded or injured around Gaza area you can’t be evacuated by our ambulance to Shifa hospital, so Shifa hospital now is out of service,” he told Reuters.

On Saturday, the hospital’s final generator ran out of fuel, causing the death of a premature baby, a child in an incubator and four other patients. As the fighting worsens outside, supplies have run out inside the hospital.

“Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said as gunfire and explosions sounded in the background. He said that Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement between hospital buildings.

The Israeli military has also alleged, without evidence, that Hamas has established command posts in and underneath hospitals and is urging those inside to evacuate so it can destroy the command centers. These claims have been denied by the medical staff at Al-Shifa and Hamas.

Staff at Al-Shifa said there had been continuous bombardment for more than 24 hours. Most hospital staff and people sheltering there had left, but 500 patients remained.

Israel’s three major TV news channels reported on Saturday there was some progress toward a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza but there was little sign of one on Sunday. They did not cite any sources and there was no public comment from Hamas or Israel on the reports.

The “unbearably desperate situation” at Al-Shifa must stop now, the International Committee of the Red Cross director general, Robert Mardini, said on social media. UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths also noted online that “there can be no justification for acts of war in health care facilities.”

Pressure has mounted on Israel as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen now five weeks after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack in southern Israel. Hamas’ incursion killed about 1,200 people and took over 200 hostages, Israeli officials have said, recently revising the death toll from a previously estimated 1,400.

Palestinian officials controlled by Hamas claimed on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since then, around 40% of them children.

With Post wires