Egypt “prepares” to receive 36 newborns at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza

The Egyptian Ministry of Health announced that it was working to receive 36 newborns at Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, describing the transfer process as “dangerous”.

Health Minister Khalid Abdel Gaffer told the network:CNN“The American, Tuesday: “We were asked to receive 36 newborns in incubators. “My team and (officials) are trying to get them here as soon as possible.”

He continued: “I have 36 ambulances equipped with portable ventilators waiting at the border to receive these children … bring them to our hospitals immediately.”

Abdel Ghafar described the process of transporting the children as “dangerous”: “Transport represents a big challenge because you need ambulances ready with mobile incubators, try to bring them to the border, we have to be ready. We have to get them immediately.

He mentioned the coordination process with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which informed him, “They are trying to put 3 children in one shelter because they don’t have enough capacity to support them.”

He stressed that the Egyptian Red Cross is “ready to receive children at the Rafah border crossing” and that “time is of the essence and every minute we don’t relocate them, the chances of them losing their lives increase”.

Al-Shifa Medical Complex, home to 1,500 civilians, including medical staff, sick and wounded, premature babies and about 7,000 displaced people, is in dire straits as a result of the power outage, which has left the hospital without service as fuel has run out.

Palestinian medics say three of the 39 babies at the Dar al-Shifa compound, considered the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, have died.

In a related development, the Israeli military announced on Wednesday that its forces were carrying out an operation “against Hamas inside al-Shifa hospital,” according to Reuters.

The Israeli military added in a statement: “Based on intelligence information and operational necessity, Israeli military forces are carrying out a precise and direct operation against Hamas in a specific area in Al-Shifa hospital.”

He continued: “To prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, the IDF forces have specially trained medical teams and Arabic speakers with the aim of causing no harm to civilians.”

Health officials in Gaza announced on Tuesday that they would “not reject” the process of transferring premature babies from Al-Shifa hospital, “as long as there is a clear mechanism for that,” following an Israeli statement talking about “coordination.” ” In preparation for transferring these children, the nurseries were to be moved to the Gaza Strip.

Ashraf al-Khudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We have nothing to prevent them from being transferred to any hospital, whether in Egypt, the West Bank or under occupation. What concerns us is the health and lives of these children.

The Israeli military announced earlier on Tuesday in a statement posted on social media in a video clip that it was “coordinating the process of transporting the incubators to Gaza in anticipation of the transfer of premature babies from Al-Shifa Hospital.” A female soldier unloads incubators from a car.

During Hamas’s sudden and unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the current war, the movement’s fighters kidnapped about 240 people and took them with them to the Gaza Strip, where they are being held hostage, the Israeli military says.

From a Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, women and children, to Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, more than 11,000 died, according to health officials there. They are civilians including women and children.