Six premature babies and nine patients in intensive care died due to a lack of electricity at Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, according to a new report from the Hamas government’s deputy health minister.
In a report prepared on Sunday evening, Youssef Abou Rich, present at the hospital where thousands of displaced people are also housed, had announced the deaths of five babies and seven patients.
On Saturday, the hospital announced that 39 premature babies were still in the hospital and that nurses were performing “hand breathing massages” to keep them alive.
A doctor from the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also indicated that 17 patients were in intensive care.
According to the daily report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the latest attacks caused damage to the cardiovascular care unit and maternity ward, among other hospital facilities in Gaza City, the capital of the Gaza Strip.
“Some IDPs, staff and patients have managed to escape, but others are still trapped,” the document highlights, recalling that the lives of 36 babies in incubators and patients with kidney problems undergoing dialysis are at risk .
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that it has lost contact with Al Shifa, while another hospital in the Gaza capital, Al Quds, is no longer functioning due to a lack of fuel.
The United Nations over the weekend denounced at least 137 attacks “against health care” in Gaza since the start of the war with Israel, actions the country classifies as “a violation of international humanitarian law and treaties.”
“Over the past 36 days, WHO has recorded at least 137 attacks on health care in Gaza,” the UN Eastern Mediterranean Agency said in a joint statement with regional delegations from UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund and UNFPA. – United Nations Population Fund, quoted by EFE.
According to the note, these attacks caused the deaths of 521 people, including 16 humanitarian workers, and injured nearly 700, including patients and healthcare professionals.
The organizations also say they are “shocked” by the recent attacks on Al Shifa Hospital – the largest in Gaza -, Al Rantissi Nasser Children’s Hospital, Al Quds Hospital and others in the city and in the north of the Palestinian enclave. where “Many people died, including children.”
These entities received reports of the deaths of “premature babies and newborns on life support” due to power outages and depletion of fuel, a resource that prevents Israel from entering the enclave for fear that it will be used by the Hamas group.
On October 7, Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and more than 200 hostages it is holding captive in the Gaza Strip.
Israel then began strong retaliation against that poor Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas since 2007, with cuts to supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel and daily bombardments, followed by a ground offensive that completed the siege on Thursday. Gaza.
This conflict caused at least 11,000 deaths in the Gaza Strip and 1,400 in Israel.
Source: DN
