The Israeli army said it would help evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest hospital Sunday after three newborns died during a power outage due to intense fighting outside, which Palestinian officials said had “terrorized” hospital staff and civilians trapped inside.
The Israel Defense Forces said they would allow passage from three hospitals in northern Gaza and also opened additional routes for civilians to evacuate to the south.
“Following repeated calls by the IDF to the people of Gaza to evacuate from northern Gaza for their own safety, the IDF allowed passage from Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals, on foot and in ambulances,” the IDF said in a statement.
Heavy Israeli shelling outside Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has been rampant in recent days as the month-long war in the disputed territory has intensified, opposition leaders said.
Although the Israeli fire did not hit the hospital, it has “terrorized medical officers and civilians,” said Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra.
When asked about the IDF’s promise to help evacuate the 45 babies in Al-Shifa, Al-Qidra said, “We were not informed of any mechanism to get the babies out to a safer hospital. So far we are praying for their safety and not losing more of them.”
Although Israel said Sunday that people could safely evacuate from Al-Shifa, Hospital Director Mohammad Abu Selmeyah told Al Arabiya television that there was no safe exit from the hospital.
The hospital is also out of reach of the newly injured, according to Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nassar Hospital.
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Officials said Gaza’s largest hospital was blocked off for the newly wounded. REUTERS The Israeli attack has “terrorized” medical staff and civilians near the hospital. Reuters
“Shifa hospital is now not working, no one is allowed in, no one is allowed out, and if you are wounded or injured around the Gaza area you cannot be transferred by our ambulance to Shifa hospital, so Shifa hospital is now unusable. services,” he told Reuters.
On Saturday, the hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel, killing a premature baby, a child in an incubator and four other patients. As the fighting intensified outside, supplies ran out inside the hospital.
“The medical device stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, began to die,” said hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia as gunshots and explosions rang out in the background. He said that Israeli forces “shot anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement between hospital buildings.
The Israeli army said it believed Hamas had put up an instructional poster inside a Gaza hospital. ZUMAPRESS.com
The Israeli military has also claimed, without evidence, that Hamas has set up command posts in and under the hospital and urged those inside to evacuate so it can destroy the command center. These claims have been denied by medical staff at Al-Shifa and Hamas.
Staff at Al-Shifa said there had been continuous bombardment for more than 24 hours. Most of the hospital staff and people sheltering there have left, but 500 patients remain.
Israel’s three main TV news channels reported on Saturday that there was some progress towards a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza but there was little sign on Sunday. They did not cite any sources and there was no public comment from Hamas or Israel on the report.
The Hamas invasion has killed about 1,200 people in Israel, while the Israeli response is said to have killed more than 11,000 people in Gaza. AFP via Getty Images
The “unbearable desperate situation” in Al-Shifa must stop now, the Director General of the International Red Cross, Robert Mardini, said on social media. UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths also stated online that “there can be no justification for acts of war in health care facilities.”
Pressure has mounted on Israel as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate now five weeks after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack in southern Israel. The Hamas incursion killed about 1,200 people and took 200 hostages, Israeli officials said, recently revising the death toll from an earlier estimate of 1,400.
Hamas-controlled Palestinian officials claimed on Friday that 11,078 Gazans had been killed in airstrikes and artillery since then, about 40% of them children.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
