3 Babies Die as Gaza’s Biggest Hospital Goes ‘Out of Service,’ Hamas-Ministry Officials Say

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   A power outage has reportedly forced doctors to perform artificial respiration on 36 babies in the hospital’s neonatal unit

Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital went “out of service” due to a power outage on Saturday, resulting in the death of three babies, Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health officials said.

The officials say the neonatal unit of the city’s largest hospital is now carrying out artificial respiration, according to CNN. There are currently 36 babies in the unit and 400 patients in active treatment, plus 20,000 people seeking shelter at the complex from Israeli fire.

“The intensive care unit, pediatric department, and oxygen devices have stopped working,” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, who is the spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, told CNN on Sunday.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health told CNN that the building, which has been a safe haven for many amid the war, was “surrounded from all four directions” by Israeli forces. Now, staff and patients are trapped inside the complex, unable to leave and without power, the Hamas-Ministry officials said.

In the past, the Israeli Defense Force has told people to move south, away from where the Al-Shifa complex is located in Northern Gaza, after concerns that Hamas was utilizing infrastructure meant for safety to run military operations.

It was also reported on Saturday that Gaza only has seven working ambulances in the city, compared to the 18 run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

“Our teams are witnessing numerous casualties and wounded individuals, yet they face challenges reaching them due to Israeli military targeting of ambulance vehicles approaching the affected areas,” the PRCS said in a statement to CNN.

This comes a week after CNN reported that Israel claimed responsibility for an attack on ambulances outside the Al-Shifa hospital on Nov. 4.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Of Gaza’s 2.1 million million residents, approximately 1.7 million are Palestinian refugees, per the UNRWA. More than 123,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced since the fighting escalated on Saturday, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

source: people.com