Palestinian premature babies safely taken away from ‘death zone’

Since November 17, which marks World Prematurity Day, Palestinian and international health and relief organizations and concerned bodies have been working around the clock to save the lives of dozens of Palestinian premature babies who were born before the 37th week of pregnancy from Israel’s ongoing aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Three premature babies out of 36 were announced dead due to the lack of oxygen in the incubator units at Al-Shifa Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, which was described by the UN medical team that visited it on November 18 as a “death zone” after Israel cut off power and electricity from the enclave and imposed a fuel ban.

Premature babies usually have problems with low body temperature, trouble breathing, and feeding problems, so the lack of oxygen and power deeply endangers their lives. The operation to transfer the children also imposes another threat to their lives, as they require well-equipped ambulances with mobile incubators, Egyptian Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar stated in an interview with CNN on November 16. 

To protect those newborn babies, medical staff at Al-Shifa Hospital transported them from the incubator units to other rooms and put them on manual respirators, in addition to using warm water bags and aluminum covers to provide them with adequate heat, Al Arabiya reported on November 17.

On November 19, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that its ambulance crews, in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), evacuated 32 premature babies from Al-Shifa Hospital.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed in a statement on the same say that 31 newborns were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital to UAE’s Tal Al-Sultan Hospital in Rafah, in preparation for their transfer to Egypt on November 20. The ministry called on the babies’ families to urgently go to Tal Al-Sultan Hospital to identify their children and indicated the possibility of accompanying their mothers or relatives during travel.

.@WHO has led a second @UN and @PalestineRCS mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in #Gaza today, under extremely intense and high-risk security conditions.

31 very sick babies were evacuated, along with 6 health workers and 10 staff family members. 

6 Palestine Red Crescent ambulances… pic.twitter.com/YJc25M0vnc

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 19, 2023

Finally, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) teams evacuated 28 premature infants to receive medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, while three other infants in good health stayed at the Emirates Hospital in Rafah.