The Israeli military on Sunday said it was ready to evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest Al Shifa hospital as it continued to bomb the coastal strip making it difficult for the hospitals to run. The Palestinian officials said two newborns had died while dozens others were at risk after fuel ran out amid intense fighting in the area.
"The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed," said Israel's chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Around 11,078 Palestinians have been killed so far from Israeli attacks since the October 7 surprise attacks from Hamas.
“The victims include 4,506 children, 3,027 women, and 678 elderly people, while 27,490 people were injured,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told a news conference in Gaza City, according to Turkish news agency Anadolu.
Israel has said that doctors, patients, and thousands of evacuees taking refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so it can tackle Hamas gunmen who it says have placed command centres under and around them.
The Palestinian militant group, however, denies using the hospital this way.
Meanwhile, a senior plastic surgeon at Al Shifa, Ahmed al-Mokhallalati told Reuters that Israeli bombings had continued for more than 24 hours, adding that most hospital staff and people sheltering there had left with only 500 patients remaining.
"It's totally a war zone. It's a totally scary atmosphere here in the hospital," he said.
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Netanyahu Rules Out PA Post-Gaza War
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said that the current Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Gaza won’t have a role after the Gaza war in the region, according to AFP. When asked whether the PA will continue to govern Gaza after the war, the Israeli PM said, “There will have to be something else there."
"There won't be a civilian authority that educates their children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to wipe out the state of Israel," he added.
Last month, the US State Secretary Antony Blinken had said that the PA should retake control of the coastal strip from Hamas with international players potentially filling a role in the interim.
Though, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in a meeting with Blinken earlier this month said that the PA would assume power in Gaza only if a "comprehensive political solution" is found for the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict encompassing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.