Two premature babies died at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital after the neonatal intensive care unit stopped working due to a lack of electricity, the facility’s director said.
Thirty-seven other babies, also hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit, are at risk of losing their lives as the hospital runs out of fuel to power its incubators, director Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, we lost two babies out of 39 due to the power outage,” said Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza’s largest medical complex. “We are talking about premature babies who require very intensive care.”
He said the two babies died because of a lack of fuel at the hospital which provides electricity to the incubators, allowing warm temperatures and a constant flow of oxygen. The hospital was besieged and the target of violent Israeli attacks.
“They died because of the low temperatures and lack of oxygen. We are now using primitive methods to keep them alive,” the director said.
“We have electricity until the morning. Once the electricity is cut off, these newborns will die like the others,” warned Abou Salmiya.
Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, confirmed the deaths of the newborns and said an adult patient also died because there was no electricity for his ventilator.
“We want someone to guarantee us that they will be able to evacuate patients, because we have around 600 hospitalized patients,” he said in an audio recording released by the medical association Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
“I can’t keep my newborns safe”
Ismail Yassin, father of two premature baby girls – Mira and Dahab – at al-Shifa hospital, said he was separated from the 33-day-old twins when he had to be evacuated to southern Gaza with his wife .
“They had to stay in the al-Shifa incubators. I can’t describe my feelings. I cannot ensure the safety of my newborns,” he said, adding that he had appealed to the Red Cross and international organizations to help him transfer his children.
“I want information about my daughters. I hope they are well. I want someone to transfer the girls from Al-Shifa to me and their mother in the south,” he pleaded on the phone with Al Jazeera.
Witnesses at the hospital told the AFP news agency by telephone that there was incessant shooting, air raids and artillery shelling that prevented people from moving around, even inside the hospital. medical complex.
According to Abu Salmiya, the hospital tried to organize an evacuation with the Red Cross, but it is still unclear whether they can help.
“When we contacted the Red Cross to ask for protection, they gave us permission to move the babies to another location in just one hour,” he said.
“We need a safe exit and safe transport with ambulances and incubators to keep them (the babies) alive. If these guarantees are offered by the Red Cross, we will do so.
“No help from the Israeli army”
Abu Salmiya denied that the Israeli army had offered to help transport the babies, despite his attempts to organize an evacuation.
“I proposed this to them (the Israeli army). I offered to evacuate the babies to safe places, using ambulances, but they did not respond,” he explained.
The Israeli military said Saturday it would help evacuate the babies.
“The staff at al-Shifa Hospital requested that tomorrow (Sunday) we help the babies from the pediatric department to go to a safer hospital. We will provide the necessary assistance,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a televised news briefing.
Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said Hagari’s supposed plan to move the babies to another hospital seemed unrealistic.
“This raises a number of questions. First: “How would this work?” How could they move the babies safely when there is ongoing fighting in the area?’ ” Fisher said.
“Second, which hospital would they go to? We hear from across the Gaza Strip that they lack essential supplies to care for babies, including premature ones. »
He added that Israel may have been acting out of concern over the criticism it had received over the situation at al-Shifa hospital and the deaths of two of the babies.