39 newborns fighting death: Gaza deputy health minister
NEW DELHI: Gaza’s deputy health minister Youssef Abu Alreesh said on Saturday that there are 39 newborns in incubators inside al-Shifa hospital – the largest medical facility in the Hamas-controlled territory – which is currently under attack by Israel Defense Forces. (IDF), media reports said.
“We have 39 newborns in our incubators. Those children are fighting death. We are completely stranded, cut off from the outside world and left without any medical resources. We can’t even bury the dead,” Alreesh told Al Jazeera in an interview.
He said that this is the moment about which we are warning the whole world, all generators are closed, all power sources are closed.
“Nobody is able to move around the compound, apart from drones and snipers deployed everywhere which target and kill any walking person,” Alreesh said.
He said heavy gunfire could be heard around the hospital, adding that the intensive care unit had received a mortar shell a few minutes earlier.
“There is blood everywhere, on the floor, we can’t even clean it,” the deputy health minister told Al Jazeera.
He said that the Israeli killing machine is killing and this has been shown on the TV screen. Now they are killing but no one is listening, no one is watching, the whole world is standing by.
The hospital director told Al Jazeera that the medical complex is completely cordoned off and anyone wandering around is being targeted by Israeli forces.
Alreesh told Al Jazeera that he was “talking to the battery left on my phone and then we’ll go silent”.
Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent chief has told the UN Security Council that Gaza hospitals are being deliberately targeted to evacuate civilians from Gaza.
There have been reports of Israeli attacks near Al-Shifa Hospital, with staff and officials posting videos online showing heavy bombardment of the area around the compound.
A World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman said on Friday that al-Shifa was “being hit by bombardment”, adding that 20 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were “out of action”.
Early Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a failed missile launched by militants in the Gaza Strip hit Al-Shifa hospital.
In a post on Twitter, IDF spokesman Avichay Adrai in Arabic said the military’s “analysis of operational systems indicates that saboteur elements targeted active IDF forces near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City this morning.” “Fire rockets”.
“According to IDF systems, a rocket-propelled grenade attacked the hospital. Therefore, according to information available to the IDF, terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are responsible for the failed missile launch that attacked the hospital,” he said.
The IDF has stated that Hamas operates from tunnels beneath al-Shifa.
However, the militant group has denied the allegation.
