Thirty-one premature Palestinian babies have been successfully evacuated from Gaza city’s Al-Shifa hospital.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the babies were relocated to the Emirati hospital in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.
WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the babies were “very sick”, had been moved under “extremely intense and high-risk security conditions”, and were now “receiving urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit” in Rafah.
“The babies had been accompanied by six health workers and 10 staff family members,” he said.
Doctors at al-Shifa had previously said newborns had died after power for incubators was cut off due to a lack of fuel.
Israel has not yet commented, though it previously said it would help evacuate babies to a “safer hospital.
Al-Shifa’s hospital director, Dr Muhammad Abu Salima called on the WHO and the UN to help the medical teams and patients “leave this desolated place”.
He told the BBC that there were about 25 medical staff left at the hospital, but that without water and electricity they were unable to properly care for the hundreds of remaining patients.
More than 13,000 people killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7.
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