No mechanism for babies to be evacuated from al-Shifa, says health ministry
The Palestinian health ministry has said that there were no objections to having babies evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, but there was no mechanism for an evacuation to take place.
"We have no objection to have the babies moved to any hospital, in Egypt, the West Bank or even to the [Israeli] occupation hospitals. What we care most is about the wellbeing and the lives of those babies," spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said on Tuesday.
The comments came after Israel said it was coordinating the transfer of incubators into the besieged enclave.
Incubators for premature babies have been switched off in al-Shifa - the largest hospital in Gaza - after the facility ran out of electricity.
On Monday, a senior doctor at the hospital told MEE that five premature babies had died and others were at risk of imminent death.
"Unfortunately, this situation means that we are waiting for them to die one by one," said Ahmad Mukhallati, the head of the plastic surgery department at al-Shifa, adding that five premature babies had already died in recent days.
"[The babies] have to be fully isolated from the surrounding areas so they don't get any infection as their immunity is not mature yet," he said.
But because of the blackout, the infants have been moved to normal beds - conditions in which they cannot survive.
