Newborns moved from Gaza to Egypt for urgent care

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Medical staff carefully place newborn babies in mobile incubators on the Egyptian side of Rafah border.

They were born in Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, which was seized by Israeli forces last week.

The first group of 28 premature babies was evacuated on Monday and taken for urgent treatment.

The babies have captured global attention since images emerged of them lying side by side on beds after their incubators were switched off for want of power.

When doctors at Al Shifa first raised the alarm, there were 39 babies. Eight have since died.

Israeli troops are searching for what they say is a vast Hamas tunnel network built beneath the hospital.

Rick Brennan of the World Health Organization said the babies have “a long road to go,” with all of them in serious or critical condition.

“They can still develop further complications, and deteriorate acutely. They are not out of the woods yet by any means. So they will need that intensive care for some time to come.”

Lobna Al-Saik’s baby daughter was recovering from respiratory problems when the hospital came under siege.

“But during these ten days when the hospital was surrounded, there was no milk and she kept getting worse, she was back to zero, to living on oxygen again and her situation was the worst out of all the babies.”

The WHO also condemned deadly firing on the Indonesian hospital.

The complex was encircled by Israeli tanks on Monday – Reuters verified the location but not the date of this footage.

Like all other health facilities in Gaza’s north, the Indonesian Hospital has largely ceased operations but is still sheltering patients, staff and displaced residents.

Israel said it was responding to fire from inside.

Meanwhile at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the south, more children are brought in, injured in a nearby Israeli strike.

The war was triggered when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 240 hostage.

Israel has responded with a relentless bombardment of Gaza and a ground invasion, which the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave says have killed 13,000 people.