Fighting continues around hospitals as Israel pledges incubators for sick babies

Israel’s military has said it is working to bring incubators into Gaza amid claims dozens of babies could die at the Shifa hospital because there is no power.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said 32 patients, including three babies, have died since the hospital’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday.

On Tuesday, a statement from the Israel Defense Forces was posted on social media with an image showing a soldier unloading incubators from a van after distress calls claimed 36 babies at Shifa were in danger due to a lack of electricity and dwindling supplies.

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The military did not make it clear if the incubators had been delivered or how they will be powered.

Shifa remains encircled by Israeli troops and tens of thousands of people have fled the hospital in the past few days – including large numbers of displaced people who had taken shelter there.

It is estimated about 650 patients and 500 staff remain in the hospital, which can no longer function, along with around 2,500 displaced Palestinians sheltering inside with little food or water.

On Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry released images of about a dozen premature babies wrapped in blankets together on a bed to keep them at a proper temperature.

Otherwise, “they immediately die”, the Health Ministry’s director general Medhat Abbas said.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that Shifa “must be protected”.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Mr Biden added.

The UN humanitarian office, known as Ocha, has said fighting is continuing around hospitals and that only one in the north is able to receive patients.

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All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting.

These confrontations have forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from what many saw as the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza.

This has left critically wounded patients, newborns and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, health officials have said.

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters.

It has accused the militant group of setting up its main command centre in and beneath Shifa, which is Gaza’s largest hospital – a claim both Hamas and hospital staff have denied.

And on Monday, the military released footage of a children’s hospital that its forces moved into over the weekend, showing weapons it said it found inside, as well as rooms in the basement where it believes the militants were holding some of the around 240 hostages they abducted.

“Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief spokesperson, standing in a room of the Rantisi Children’s Hospital.

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Explosive vests, grenades and RPGs were displayed on the floor.

On Monday, the Red Cross began to evacuate around 6,000 patients, staff and displaced people from another hospital, Al-Quds, after it shut down due to a lack of fuel.

However the aid organisation said its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting.

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As of 10 November, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

This figure is understood to include dead militant fighters.

About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians in the Hamas attack on 7 October.

Palestinian militants are holding nearly 240 hostages seized in the surprise raid, including children, women, men and older adults.

The military says 44 soldiers have been killed in ground operations in Gaza.

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