Doctor takes care of babies at AlShifa Hospital in Gaza Said Khatib/AFP November 20, 2023
28 premature babies picked up from AlShifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip arrived in Egypt this Monday (20) through the Rafah border crossing, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Egyptian state broadcaster Al Qahera News reported.
“Today, Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances transported 28 premature babies who left AlShifa Hospital on Sunday from the Emirates Hospital in Rafah (Gaza) to the Rafah border crossing [no sul da Faixa de Gaza]”, the WHO announced in a statement.
According to Al Qahera News, 16 children have already arrived in Egyptian Red Crescent ambulances equipped with incubators at ElArish Hospital, 45 kilometers west of the Rafah border crossing.
The hospital cannot accommodate all the babies, a medical source told AFP, before reporting that some would be transferred to Ismailia (200 km away) or the capital Cairo (300 km away).
• Click here and receive news from R7 on your WhatsApp
• Share this news via WhatsApp
• Share this news on Telegram
• Subscribe to the R7 em Ponto newsletter
The WHO said 11 newborns were in “critical condition” and all had “serious infections.” The babies are not accompanied by their families because the Hamas Ministry of Health has not been able to locate them.
The Egyptian state broadcaster Al Qahera News initially announced the arrival of 29 babies, but then corrected the balance. In total, 31 premature babies were brought from AlShifa, a hospital the WHO describes as a “war zone.” Egypt has not clarified why only 28 babies arrived in Egypt after initial reports said 31 had been transferred.
According to the Times of Israel, the babies were evacuated with Israeli help after troops took control of the hospital over the weekend. Israel has called for the hospital’s evacuation since the start of the war, while urging residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move to a safe zone in the south.