No fewer than 28 premature babies from Gaza have been evacuated from a hospital inside the besieged Palestinian enclave to Egypt to receive treatment, according to Egyptian television footage and a Palestinian hospital doctor.
Today, Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances transported 28 premature babies, who arrived from Al-Chifa Hospital on Sunday, from the Emirates Hospital in Rafah (Gaza) to the Rafah crossing point”, the only exit from Gaza to the outside that is not controlled by Israel , the WHO stated in a press release.
“The 28 infants arrived in Egypt and three other babies continue to receive treatment at the Emirates Hospital” in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, the organization said.
The Egyptian state media Al-Qahera News initially announced the arrival of 29 babies, before correcting it.
A total of 31 premature babies were evacuated on Sunday from al-Shifa hospital, which the WHO, which participated in the evacuation of the babies to the Emirates hospital in Rafah, had described as a “zone of dead”. The Israeli army said it “helped facilitate” the evacuation of the babies from al-Chifa on Sunday.
Taken in Egyptian Red Crescent ambulances equipped with incubators upon their arrival in Egypt on Monday, “16 infants have already arrived at Al-Arich hospital”, 45 km west of the border post of Rafah, according to the report.
“There are not enough incubators at Al-Arich hospital and some children will have to be transferred to Ismailia (200 km) or Cairo (300 km),” a medical source said earlier.
“All babies suffer from serious infections” and “need medical attention,” the WHO said. “Eleven of them are in critical condition,” she said on Sunday.
