Gaza’s biggest hospital has buried 179 people, including babies, in a “mass grave” inside its compound, Al Shifa Hospital chief Mohammad Abu Salmiyah said Tuesday, underlining the catastrophic humanitarian crisis developing at medical facilities across the region.

“We were forced to bury them in a mass grave,” the hospital director said. Seven babies and 29 patients from the intensive care unit were buried after the hospital’s fuel supplies ran out.

“There are bodies littered in the hospital complex. There is no more electricity…”

A journalist, who is collaborating with AFP, said the stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere.

A surgeon at the hospital, working with Doctors Without Borders, called the situation “inhuman”.

“We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital. There’s no food.”

The Al Shifa Hospital is Gaza City’s largest and was cut off from the world for over 72 hours last week after a deadly blockade by Israeli forces that included tanks at the front gates; Tel Aviv insists the hospital sits atop a network of tunnels that form part of the Hamas’ underground headquarters.

Israel has accused the terror group of using hospitals and patients as human shields, an accusation the Hamas and Gaza health officials have denied. In a separate incident, Israel claimed to have discovered a tunnel leading into another hospital from the home of a known Hamas operative.

The United Nations believes thousands, and perhaps more than 10,000 – including patients, staff and displaced civilians – may be inside and unable to escape because of fierce fighting nearby.

Hospitals, and medical personnel, are protected under international humanitarian law and parties in conflict must ensure their protection. They cannot be used to shield military objectives from attack, but any operation around or within must protect patients, staff, and other civilians, the United Nations’ Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its Monday update from Gaza.

Israel had pledged to help evacuate the babies. That has not happened so far.

Earlier today, a heart-breaking image emerged from the same hospital – of seven babies bundled together, some in non-descript, hospital-green fabric and others with tubes sticking out of them.

READ | Gaza Babies Laid In Rows For Warmth; “I Had 39, Now 36 Left”, Says Doctor

“Yesterday I had 39 babies… today 36,” Dr Mohamed Tabasha, the paediatric head, told Reuters Monday. “I cannot say how long they can last. I can lose another two babies today… or in an hour.”

Google was fined 15 million roubles ($164,000) on Tuesday for repeated refusal to store Russian users’ data on servers inside Russia, a Moscow court said.

Russia has repeatedly clashed with foreign technology companies over content, censorship, data and local representation in a simmering dispute that intensified after Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022.

Google’s Russian subsidiary has been under pressure in Russia for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal and for restricting access to some Russian media on YouTube.

The technology giant’s Russian unit filed for bankruptcy in summer 2022 after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay staff and vendors.

However, while the Kremlin has banned some platforms including Twitter and Facebook, it has not blocked access to Google’s services, and its search engine and YouTube platform, both free, have continued operating. Google did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

An Indian woman from Kashmir who had sought immediate evacuation from the war-torn Hamas-ruled Gaza has safely reached Egypt with the help of Indian missions in the region, according to her husband.

Lubna Nazir Shaboo and her daughter Karima, crossed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Monday evening.

“They are in al-Arish (a city in Egypt). Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) they will move to Cairo,” Lubna’s husband Nedal Toman said in a text message sent to PTI from Gaza.

The only exit route from Gaza, the Rafah crossing with Egypt, has been infrequently opened the past few weeks to let humanitarian supplies enter Gaza and also let some foreign nationals and wounded people cross over to the other side.

In a telephone call to PTI on Sunday, Lubna confirmed that her name was among the people who could leave Gaza and thanked profusely the Indian missions in the region — in Ramallah, Tel Aviv and Cairo — for making this possible.

On October 10, Lubna had reached out to PTI over the phone seeking help for evacuation.

“We are facing a brutal war here and everything is being destroyed and bombarded in a matter of seconds,” she had told PTI.

Following the unprecedented attacks by Hamas militants on October 7 in the southern areas of the Jewish state, Israel declared war launching a counter-offensive with the twin objectives of ousting Hamas, which has ruled the coastal Strip since 2007, and freeing around 240 people who were taken hostage by the Islamic faction.

“The sounds of bombardment are too scary and the whole house shakes. It is a very, very scary situation,” Lubna had told PTI before moving with her family to the southern part of Gaza where she spent several days with acquaintances before being evacuated.

She had mentioned that their “water supply was officially cut off” in the middle of the night of October 9 and they were without electricity, which made them decide to move to the south and seek help in evacuation.

Lubna had also said that she hadn’t seen anything like this before and had two families living with them who had to run away after bombardment in the bordering areas of Gaza.

“We are not able to go anywhere because there is no safe place for us anywhere and the Gaza Strip is too small and it is closed from every side. There are no exit points over here,” she said.

“I have already asked for help from the Representative office of India in Ramallah to help me get to a safer place along with my husband and my daughter,” she had said in a video message sent to PTI.