Two of the 33 premature babies who were to be taken from Al Shifa hospital in Gaza died the night before the transfer operation, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, (…) two of these premature babies died that night due to lack of care,” declared WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier at a regular press conference in Geneva.
Of the 33 premature babies, three remain hospitalized in the Emirates hospital in southern Gaza, according to the spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), James Elder, quoted by the French agency AFP.
al-Shifa’s premature babies were supposed to have been taken out of the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital on Sunday.
That day they arrived from Al Shifa Hospital and stopped at Emirates Hospital, where the three who are still hospitalized there remained.
The 28 who were able to continue their journey arrived in Egypt on Monday through the Rafah crossing, the only exit from Gaza that is not controlled by Israel.
Speaking by video conference from Cairo, the Unicef spokesperson stated that 20 of the 28 babies transferred to Egypt were traveling without their mothers.
“Seven mothers accompanied eight babies,” he said, adding that two of the babies were twins.
The Israeli military said it “helped facilitate” the transfer of the babies from al-shifa on Sunday.
The Israeli military, at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, launched an attack on al-Shifa last week, alleging that the hospital housed a base for the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Hamas denied the Israeli army’s accusations.
The war between Israel and Hamas was sparked by the Palestinian group’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities.
The Israeli military also estimates that Hamas has kidnapped about 240 people and is holding it hostage in Gaza.
In the Gaza Strip, more than 13,300 people were killed by Israeli bombings, including more than 5,600 children, according to Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2007.
Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Source: TSF
