Premature babies at Gaza\u2019s largest hospital are being wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate bid to keep them alive, the hospital director warned, as Israeli firepower continues to pound surrounding streets and remaining fuel reserves dry up, leaving the facility unable to function. <\/p>\n
Staff at the Al-Shifa hospital were fighting to keep the newborns alive after oxygen supplies ran out and they had to move the babies by hand from the neonatal unit\u2019s incubators to a different part of the hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was with them a while ago. They are now exposed, because we have taken them out of the incubators. We wrap them in foil and put hot water next to them so that we can warm them,\u201d the medical center\u2019s director Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya\u00a0told Al-Araby TV on Sunday. <\/p>\n
Images show several newborn\u00a0babies\u00a0who were taken off incubators at the hospital clustered helplessly together and placed in one bed. <\/p>\n
The doctor said several children have died while in the intensive care unit and the nursery during the last day amid Israel\u2019s continued bombardment and blockade of Gaza, an already impoverished and densely packed territory, following the October 7 attack on its territory by Hamas militants. <\/p>\n
Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, and a fuel blockade has resulted in a deepening humanitarian crisis as hospitals, water systems, bakeries and other\u00a0services reliant on electricity shut down. <\/p>\n
Conditions at Al-Shifa\u00a0deteriorated into a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d situation over the weekend, as staff, patients and thousands of sheltering residents were\u00a0trapped inside due to heavy fighting, aid agencies and Hamas health officials said, though Israel insists people are safe to leave the hospital by following an evacuation corridor eastwards out of the complex. <\/p>\n
Inside the hospital, none of the operating rooms are functioning due to a lack of electricity, Abu Salmiya said, adding that \u201cwhoever needs surgery dies, and we cannot do anything for him.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe operating rooms are completely out of service, and now the wounded come to us and we cannot give them anything other than first aid,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Al-Shifa is far from alone.\u00a0On Sunday the Palestine Red Crescent Society announced that Al-Quds Hospital, another major facility in Gaza City is now out of service. <\/p>\n
The PRCS said the hospital \u2013 the second largest in Gaza \u2013 was \u201cno longer operational. This cessation of services is due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage.\u201d <\/p>\n
A freelance journalist inside Al-Shifa described dozens of bodies yet to be buried, ambulances have been unable to collect the wounded, and life-support systems have no electricity to function. Medics are working by candlelight, food is being rationed and people inside are starting to drink pipe water, the journalist said. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military\u00a0has previously said\u00a0Hamas\u00a0is\u00a0embedding itself in civilian infrastructure\u00a0and that it will strike\u00a0Hamas\u00a0\u201cwherever necessary.\u201d It has also accused Hamas of using hospitals as cover \u2014 a charge doctors at Al- Shifa and the militant group deny. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians, injured or displaced by Israel\u2019s escalating war against Hamas, have packed its wards, seeking shelter from the\u00a0seemingly endless barrage of Israeli airstrikes. <\/p>\n
Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra\u00a0said the Al Shifa complex was\u00a0\u201cout of service\u201d\u00a0after repeatedly being targeted by Israeli fire and that the \u201cintensive care unit, pediatric department, and oxygen devices have stopped working.\u201d <\/p>\n
The World Health Organization says Al-Shifa has been without power for three days. \u201cRegrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military estimates 240 hostages are being held by Hamas in Gaza, including civilian men, women and children. The militant group has released just four hostages \u2013 two elderly Israeli women and an American mother and daughter \u2013 while the\u00a0Israeli forces\u00a0said they had rescued an Israeli soldier. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re talking about stopping the fighting, that\u2019s exactly what Hamas wants,\u201d Netanyahu said, arguing that Hamas would use those extended pauses to replenish its supplies. \u201cHamas wants an endless series of pauses that basically dissipate the battle against them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
It comes as Israeli troops on Sunday continued their ground operation in Gaza by going deeper into Gaza City,\u00a0army spokesperson Daniel\u00a0Hagari\u00a0said in a press briefing. Infantry and combat engineering forces\u00a0reached the outskirts of al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, Hagari said, which is near the Al-Shifa hospital. While army forces in coordination with the Navy raided the Gaza marina area and are currently in the areas to its east. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it put 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to the Al-Shifa Hospital complex on Sunday, but that Hamas had blocked the hospital from receiving it. <\/p>\n
Abu Salmiya, the hospital director, told Al-Araby TV that Israeli officials had indeed called him to offer the fuel \u2014 which he said would provide power to run the generators for only thirty minutes \u2014 but that staff had been\u00a0too scared to go get it. <\/p>\n
The IDF released a video it said showed soldiers delivering the jerry cans to a\u00a0curbside\u00a0location near the hospital entrance. It also released an audio recording, purportedly of a hospital official accusing a Hamas leader at the health ministry of refusing to allow it to be collected. <\/p>\n
Abu Salmiya said it was the presence of Israeli tanks that prevented collection. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, my paramedic team was completely afraid to go out,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cWe want every drop of fuel, but I told (the IDF) that it should be sent through the International Red Cross or through any international institution.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hamas dismissed the allegations and said the Israeli fuel delivery was a propaganda stunt. <\/p>\n
This story is being updated with additional developments.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n Premature babies at Gaza\u2019s largest hospital are being wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate bid to keep them alive, the hospital director warned, as Israeli firepower continues to pound surrounding streets and remaining fuel reserves dry up, leaving the facility unable to function. Staff at the Al-Shifa hospital were <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}