'If They Stay in This Condition, They Are All Going to Die'

Babies are dying at besieged Gaza hospital
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 13, 2023 2:30 AM CST
'If They Stay in This Condition, They Are All Going to Die'
A wounded Palestinian baby receives treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023.   (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

Israel claims it is helping to evacuate people, including babies, from Gaza's largest hospital, where the situation is "catastrophic." But health officials in Gaza as well as people trapped inside the hospital say those claims are false, the AP reports. Those same people also pushed back on Israel's claims that it placed fuel near an emergency generator meant to power incubators for premature babies, but that Hamas stopped the hospital from receiving the fuel—the amount of fuel supposedly placed there, anyway, one tells Al Jazeera, wouldn't even have run the generator for an hour: "This is a mockery towards the patients and children." Since the hospital's last generator ran out of fuel Saturday, three babies have died; 10 other patients also died over the weekend, NBC News reports.

There are at least 36 other premature infants who, health officials warn, are at risk of "death at any moment," being kept warm under blankets, per Al Jazeera. "If they stay in this condition, they are going to all die," a surgeon at the hospital, who also works in the health ministry, says. "We are expecting to lose more of them day by day," another surgeon says. A hospital spokesperson says no one has been able to evacuate the hospital due to fighting outside, and a health ministry official says Israeli snipers are firing at any movement: "We can't stick our heads out of the window." (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)

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