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Babies evacuated from al-Shifa and transferred to southern Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News<\/p>\n
The most vulnerable patients at al-Shifa Hospital \u2013 dozens of prematurely born babies in critical condition \u2013 have been evacuated to the south of the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Of the 39 babies who had been left without incubators when al-Shifa Hospital was left short of fuel and medical supplies after Israeli forces raided on Wednesday, 31 have made it out.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Zaqout, director-general of hospitals in Gaza, told journalists that \u201call 31 premature babies in al-Shifa Hospital\u2026 have been evacuated\u201d along with three doctors and two nurses, and \u201cpreparations are under way\u201d for them to enter Egypt.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, said the babies were on their way to southern Gaza hospitals in six Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances, in an effort coordinated with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the group said in a post on its Facebook page.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces ordered doctors, patients and displaced people at Gaza\u2019s al-Shifa Hospital to evacuate the medical compound, forcing some to leave by gunpoint, doctors and Palestinian officials told Al Jazeera on Saturday.<\/p>\n
A World Health Organization team that visited the hospital on Saturday reported that there were still hundreds of patients there, including many in extremely critical condition, trauma patients with severely infected wounds, and others with spinal injuries who are unable to move.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation,\u201d the agency said, describing al-Shifa as a death zone.<\/p>\n
Doctors said that four babies had died during the raid.<\/p>\n
The babies were transferred to the south of Gaza \u201cin preparation for their transfer to the Emirates Hospital in Rafah\u201d the Palestinian Red Crescent said.<\/p>\n
Later in the day Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, told a news conference that the babies had been moved to Tal Alsultan Hospital in Rafah and will be sent to Egyptian hospitals with their families tomorrow.<\/p>\n