Said Khatib Agence France-Presse Placed side by side on stretchers, all wearing the same little green cap, the babies were transported in Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances, then were taken care of in incubators after crossing the border .
Twenty-eight premature babies, evacuated on Sunday from a hospital in Gaza City, at the heart of the fighting between Israel and Hamas, arrived in Egypt on Monday, the Palestinian Islamist movement accusing Israel of having launched a deadly strike on another besieged health facility.
In addition, Qatar and the United States, which are working towards an agreement to release hostages kidnapped by Hamas in exchange for a truce, reported 'progress in the negotiations.
Placed side by side on stretchers, all wearing the same little green hat, the babies were transported in Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances, then taken care of in incubators after crossing the border.
< p>“Today, 28 of the 31 premature babies who were evacuated from al-Chifa hospital yesterday were safely transferred to el-Arish [hospital] to receive medical treatment, Egypt,” said Monday on Three premature babies are nevertheless still hospitalized in the south of the Palestinian territory, he said.
Al-Chifa hospital, which according to Israel housed a Hamas hideout in the heart of Gaza City , is deprived of electricity, and the shortage of fuel in the small besieged territory prevents incubators from operating.
The largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, al-Chifa was described by the WHO as a “death zone” where eight infants died before their transfer, according to a Palestinian official.
Also read
- Around thirty babies from al-Chifa hospital evacuated
- 84 other Canadians left the strip of Gaza
- After the evacuation of al-Chifa, the long road for the displaced
- Biden calls to “reunify Gaza and the West Bank”
WHO “horrified”
In Israel, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed, according to the authorities, in the attack launched on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip, of a scale and violence unprecedented in the history of the country.
In response, Israel has vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, the European Union and Israel, and has relentlessly pounded the Palestinian territory, where its army has also led since October 27 a ground offensive.
In the Gaza Strip, more than 13,300 people were killed in Israeli bombardments, including more than 5,600 children, according to the Hamas government. “Killing children and innocent civilians will only fuel the resistance,” the spokesperson for the movement’s armed wing, who calls himself Abou Obeida, said on Monday.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, where most of the Israeli offensive is concentrated, a strike on Monday killed at least “12 patients and their relatives” and left “dozens injured” in the Indonesian hospital, located on the edge of the large Jabaliya refugee camp, according to the Hamas health ministry.
“The WHO is horrified by an attack on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza,” declared the head of the WHO on X. “Around 700 patients and caregivers” are in this hospital “besieged” by the Israeli army , said the ministry's spokesperson, saying he feared “the same thing would happen there as in al-Chifa.”
According to the Hamas government, the occupants of dozens of tanks and armored vehicles deployed around the hospital fired machine guns and artillery at the establishment.
Truce for liberation?
The Islamist movement keeps repeating that Israel is waging “a war on hospitals” in Gaza. Almost all of those in the north of the territory no longer operate.
Israel, for its part, accuses Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, of using hospitals for military purposes and of using the civilians there as “human shields”, which the Palestinian movement denies.
The Israeli army says it has discovered in this immense complex a tunnel 55 meters long and dug to 10 meters depth chamber which contains “grenade launchers, explosives and Kalashnikovs.”
On Monday, a senior Israeli military official assured that there were almost no more rocket attacks from Hamas towards Israel from northern Gaza. “Hamas still has firepower. If we want to eliminate it, we must go south. We cannot do otherwise,” said this official, speaking on condition of anonymity, as hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians pile up in the south.
On Monday, warning sirens sounded in Israel, in Tel Aviv, according to images from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
On the day of the initial Hamas attack, around 240 people were taken hostage and taken to Gaza, according to the Israeli army.
Qatar, which is mediating to try to obtain their release in exchange for a truce, assured Sunday that only “very minor” obstacles remained to a deal.
On Monday, the 45th day of the war between Hamas and Israel, a key US ally, President Joe Biden said he believed an agreement was close.
These advances have not been confirmed or by Hamas nor by Israel, whose government refuses any cease-fire without the release of the hostages. Their relatives will meet the entire war cabinet on Monday.
Clinic targeted
Israel announced on Monday “expanding its operations in new neighborhoods”, particularly in the Jabaliya sector, at the gates of Gaza City.
Artillery fire and airstrikes destroyed buildings in downtown Gaza, according to an AFP journalist.
Doctors at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza told AFP they had received “dozens” of dead and injured. On Monday, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) clinic located in Gaza City “came under fire,” and “four MSF cars burned,” with a fifth cut in two, the NGO said. without news from one of its members and their loved ones.
“Our colleagues say that a wall collapsed and part of the building was ravaged by flames while violent fighting took place all around. An Israeli tank was seen in the street,” added MSF on Saturday, according to the UN, which considers these deliveries insufficient.
According to the UN, nearly 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip, which has been subject to a “complete siege” since October 9 by Israel, which is blocking deliveries of food, water, electricity and medicine.
In the Gazan town of Khan Younes (south), some shelter from the rain under makeshift tents lined up in a muddy parking lot near the Nasser hospital, according to images shot by AFP. On Monday, a first field hospital from Jordan arrived in the Gaza Strip to be installed in this city.
In the south of the territory, which is also not spared by the strikes, Residents of Rafah searched through the rubble of their neighborhood on Monday, devastated by a bombing on a building, according to AFP images.
“We were sleeping at home, and we came to see what was happening. had passed after hearing a loud “boom”. We found buildings reduced to ruins,” said resident Shehda Mosallem.