Seven babies have been bundled together for warmth – a desperate bid to save their lives – in a heart-breaking image shared Tuesday from Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital. The city’s largest hospital has been crippled by fuel shortages and is stuck inside a “circle of death” as Hamas forces and Israeli military wage a bloody war on its doorsteps; access has been blocked by tanks, and medical staff are bracing for mass casualties within its walls.
The seven babies are among 39 born prematurely – they weigh less than 1.5 kg each. Each should be in incubators so body temperatures can be regulated. Instead, they were moved to ordinary beds – placed side-by-side and covered by packets of nappies and cardboard boxes of sterile gauze – over the weekend because there is no more fuel to run the generators that power the incubators.
“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.”
By the end of the day three more (and nine adult patients) had died, AFP reported.
READ | 6 Babies, 9 Others Dead In Gaza Hospital After Fuel Shortage
Cold (and bullets and missiles) aren’t the only reason the babies are dying.
Dr Tabasha said the babies are contracting multiple virus in the absence of any natural immunity or infection control measures provided by an incubator.
There is also no way of sterilising their milk – what little is left – and some had contracted gastritis and were suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting, which leaves them at risk of dehydration.
“They are in a very bad situation… where you slowly kill them unless the situation improves…” Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati, also involved in caring for the babies, told Reuters by telephone.
And to ensure the babies live – at least long enough to see the carnage and destruction wrought on Gaza by Israel and the Hamas – Dr Tabasha will need an uninterrupted supply of electricity, sterilisers for the milk and bottle teats, and support machines when any of them fall into respiratory failure.
There are over 650 patients – waiting to be evacuated by the Red Cross – at the besieged Al Shifa Hospital that lacks essentials – diesel, food, water, medicines and medical equipment.
READ | WHO Loses Contact With Gaza Hospital “Surrounded By Tanks”
Israeli forces insist the hospital sits atop a network of tunnels that form part of the Hamas’ underground headquarters, and that the group’s operatives are using the patients as a shield.
Tel Aviv also insists it has evidence to show Hamas stored weapons, including grenades, suicide vests and other explosives, in the basement of another Gaza hospital. “… we also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a military spokesperson, said Monday.
The Hamas, and Gaza’s health officials, have denied all such allegations.
The World Health Organization said Monday that it had finally managed to re-establish contact with the Al Shifa Hospital, and warned; “… the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore.”
.@WHO has managed to get in touch with health professionals at the Al-Shifa hospital in #Gaza.
The situation is dire and perilous.
It’s been 3 days without electricity, without water and with very poor internet which has severely impacted our ability to provide essential…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 12, 2023
Al Quds, a second major hospital in northern Gaza, has been cut off from the world for a week.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was surrounded by heavy gunfire, and a convoy of Red Cross vehicles sent to evacuate patients and staff had been unable to reach the facility.
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.
READ | Israel Offers Gaza Hospital Evacuation For Babies But Fighting Continues
Israeli forces did offer to supply the hospital would fuel but would only give 300 litres, enough only for 30 minutes and a fraction of the 8,000 to 10,000 litres needed to run the main generators.
Israel faces intense international pressure to halt civilian loss amid a brutal air and ground operation that Hamas says has already killed over 11,000 people, 40 per cent of whom were children.
With input from agencies
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