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.”

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Tuesday approved the creation of 10 more Family Courts in the capital, raising the number of such Courts in the city to 31, according to a press release by the LG office.

“The approval affects the creation of posts of 10 Judges to head these Courts and also 71 other posts that include Reader, Steno/ Sr. PA, Steno/ PA, Assistant Ahlmad, Naib Nazir, Orderly and Staff Car Driver,” said the official statement.

The approval comes following a recommendation of the full Court way back in 2019 for the creation of at least 10 more Family Courts in view of the pendency of cases for more than 5-10 years.

About 46,000 cases are pending in Family Courts in Delhi, the lowest being 1321 pending with Principal Judge, Family Court, Saket and the highest being 3654 pending with Family Court, Rohini, the press release said.

According to Family Court, Dwarka, there are about 150-200 on average being registered with Family Courts on a daily basis and approximately 80% of staff in these Courts is working on diverted capacity from various other Departments.

Recently, LG Saxena approved the creation of 10 additional posts of IT cadre in order to strengthen IT-enabled services in the Delhi Prison Department.

These 10 additional posts will include one post of Senior System Analyst, one post of System Analyst and eight posts of Data Processing Assistants (Assistant Programmer), according to the official statement.

The official release further mentioned that the total financial implication for the creation of 10 posts is estimated to be around Rs 1.02 crore annually.

The press note by the LG office also informed that the IT Department, Administrative Reforms Department and the Finance Department have concurred with the creation of above mentioned 10 additional posts.

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.