Thirty-one premature babies, stuck in the hospital without survival equipment, were evacuated by ambulance.
The most vulnerable patients at al-Shifa hospital – dozens of premature babies in critical condition – were evacuated to the southern Gaza Strip.
Of the 39 babies who were left without an incubator when al-Shifa Hospital ran out of fuel and medical supplies after Israeli forces raided it on Wednesday, 31 survived.
Mohammed Zaqout, director general of Gaza hospitals, told reporters that “all 31 premature babies from al-Shifa hospital… have been evacuated” along with three doctors and two nurses, and that “preparations are underway” for let them enter Egypt.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, working at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said the babies were on their way to hospitals in southern Gaza. Six Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances transported them, as part of a coordinated effort with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, indicated the group in a message published on its Facebook page.
Israeli forces ordered doctors, patients and displaced people at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital to evacuate the medical complex, forcing some to leave at gunpoint, doctors told Tel Aviv Tribune on Saturday and Palestinian officials.
A WHO team that visited the hospital on Saturday said there were still hundreds of patients, many in extremely critical condition, trauma patients with severely infected wounds and others suffering spinal injuries and unable to move.
“Patients and health staff they spoke with were terrified for their safety and health and pleaded for evacuation,” the agency said, describing al-Shifa as a death zone.
Doctors said four babies died in the raid.
The babies were transferred to southern Gaza “in preparation for their transfer to Emirates Hospital in Rafah”, PRCS said.
Later in the day, Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, told a news conference that the babies had been transferred to Tal al Hospital. -Sultan of Rafah and would be sent to Egyptian hospitals tomorrow with their families. .
