‘39 newborns in incubators fighting against death’ says Gaza Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abu Alreesh

NEW DELHI: Gaza Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abu Alreesh on Saturday said that there are 39 newborn babies in incubators inside the Al-Shifa Hospital — the largest medical facility in the Hamas-controlled enclave — which is currently being attacked by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), media reports said.

“We have 39 newborns in the incubators. Those babies are fighting against death. We are totally stranded, cut off from the outside world and are left without any medical resources. We cannot even bury the dead,” Alreesh told Al Jazeera in an interview. He said that this is the moment we have been warning the whole world of, all generators are off, all power sources are out.

“No one is able to move around the compound, snipers are stationed all over the place in addition to the drones that target and kill any moving person,” Alreesh said. He said that ferocious gunfire can be heard within the vicinity of the hospital, the intensive care unit received a mortar shell a few minutes ago.

“Blood is everywhere, on the floor, we cannot even clean it,” the Deputy Health Minister told Al Jazeera. He said that the Israeli killing machine was killing and this was conveyed on TV screens. Now they are perpetrating the same 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 has been completely cut off and any moving person is being targeted by the Israeli forces.

Alreesh told Al Jazeerathat he is “speaking with whatever is left of my phone battery and after this we will be silent”.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Chief has told the UN Security Council that Gaza hospitals are being deliberately targeted to force civilians out of Gaza. There have been reports of Israeli attacks near the Al-Shifa Hospital, with staff and authorities posting online videos appearing to show heavy bombing in the area surrounding the complex.

A World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said Friday that al-Shifa was “coming under bombardment”, adding that 20 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were “out of action”.

In the early hours of Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that a failed missile launched by terrorists in the Gaza Strip hit the Al-Shifa Hospital.

In a post on X, the IDF’s spokesperson in Arabic Avichay Adraee said that an analysis of the military’s “operational systems indicates that sabotage elements fired rockets this morning targeting IDF forces operating near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City”. “According to IDF systems, rocket-propelled grenades hit the hospital. Therefore, according to the information available to the IDF, terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are responsible for the failed missile launch that hit the hospital,” he added.

The IDF has maintained that the Hamas operates from tunnels underneath Al-Shifa. The allegation however, has been denied by the militant group. (IANS)

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