Around 31 premature babies were evacuated from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City in the south of the enclave and are being transferred to Egypt.
At least 31 premature babies were evacuated from Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities. The babies are being taken to medical facilities in Egypt.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, under the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said it had successfully evacuated 31 premature babies from the hospital.
Last week, Israeli forces stormed the hospital as part of their military operations against Hamas.
A World Health Organization team visited Shifa on Saturday and reported that 32 babies were in need of care there.
The team, which managed to spend an hour at the hospital, said what was once the “largest, most modern and best-equipped hospital in Gaza” was now a “death zone.”
The Israeli army has searched Shifa Hospital for signs of a Hamas command center that it claims was located beneath the building – a claim Hamas and hospital staff deny.
Also read: Patients and medical staff leave Gaza hospital after Israeli takeover
Meanwhile, dozens of displaced civilians were killed or injured in Israeli air strikes on Saturday, including one on a school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees reported.
“The scenes were terrible. Bodies of women and children lay on the ground. Others screamed for help,” injured survivor Ahmed Radwan told the AP by phone.
AP photos from a local hospital showed more than 20 bodies wrapped in bloodstained sheets.
“These attacks must not become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” wrote UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini on X on Saturday morning.
In response, the Israeli military simply stated that its troops were active in the Jabaliya area “with the aim of attacking terrorists” while trying to minimize damage to the civilian population.
On Saturday, the army called on civilians in parts of the southern Gaza Strip to leave the country. On Friday, Israel again warned Palestinians in the southern town of Khan Younis to relocate from areas of the Gaza Strip where Israeli officials had previously told people they were safe.
Also read: Relatives demand the return of those kidnapped during a mass march in Israel
“We are asking people to relocate,” Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC. “I know it’s not easy for many of them, but we don’t want civilians to get caught in the crossfire.”
Palestinian authorities in Gaza now say more than 12,000 people – including around 5,000 children – have been killed since Israel launched a major attack in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel Air and ground offensive began.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom, the EU and others.
The United Nations considers these figures to be credible, although they have not been updated since November 10 due to the collapse of services and communications in hospitals in northern Gaza.
Israel said 57 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since it entered the territory.
On Saturday, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 47 people in and around Khan Younis, according to doctors.
An airstrike hit two homes in Khan Younis, killing 26 Palestinians and wounding 23, health authorities said. Six others were killed a few kilometers north in a bomb attack on a house in the city of Deir Al-Balah, health authorities said.
Telephone and internet service was restored in the Gaza Strip on Saturday and a telecommunications outage ended, the Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said. The power outage forced the UN to suspend important aid deliveries.
[Con información de la corresponsal de la VOA en las ONU, Margaret Besheer, y despachos de AP, AFP y Reuters]
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