‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 38: Premature babies dependent on incubators in Gaza are officially being left to die.

By LEILA WARAH – Mondoweiss

All the hospitals in Gaza City are now out of service as Israel’s attack on healthcare continues, forcing medical staff to abandon their dying patients, including premature babies

FIRST RESPONDERS AND VOLUNTEERS SEARCH THE DESTROYED HOUSE OF THE AL-GHOUTI FAMILY FOLLOWING AN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE, RAFAH, NOVEMBER 11, 2023. (PHOTO: © ABED RAHIM KHATIB/DPA VIA ZUMA PRESS/APA IMAGES)

Casualties: 

11,078 killed*, including 4,506 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza

*The casualty numbers from Gaza have not been updated in at least 3 days, as the “collapse of services and communications” has made it nearly impossible for the health ministry to document and update the numbers

187 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200

Key Developments: 

• All of Gaza City’s hospitals are out of service, says the Palestinian Health Ministry.
• Three nurses killed at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, according to UN.
• At least 192 medical staff have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
• Israel forces doctors to abandon patients in Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital.
• Medical teams are unable to bury the 100 bodies that have begun to decompose in the al-Shifa Hospital courtyard, putting patients’ health at risk, says the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
• At least six premature babies and nine patients have died in the last few days, says Gaza’s Health Ministry

Health systems in northern Gaza have collapsed

Israel’s ground invasion in the north of Gaza has continued to expand and intensify, forcing many civilians still located in the north to evacuate to the south of the besieged enclave.

As thousands of civilians of all ages evacuated, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described the experience as “precarious and unsafe.”

“Men, women, and children, waving white flags, walk for dozens of kilometers past dead bodies lying on the streets and without necessities like food and water,” the organization said in a statement on Sunday.

“The southern area is not equipped to cater to the massive number of people arriving with nothing but the clothes they are wearing, and the quantity of humanitarian aid coming in is largely insufficient.”

Meanwhile, many people are still stuck in hospitals in the north, all of which are now out of service, unable to evacuate due to their medical situations, including severe disabilities and injuries.

Al-Shifa Hospital still has about 650 patients, 500 healthcare workers, and approximately 2,500 displaced people inside the hospital compound, Muhammad Zaqout, Director of Hospitals in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

Al-Shifa has been under a military siege imposed by Israeli snipers and tanks since Friday and was declared “completely out of service” on Sunday.

Over the last three days, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al Qidra told Al Jazeera that at least 32 hospital patients from the hospital have died, a number which is expected to rise if no fuel and adequate healthcare is allowed into Gaza.

Zaqout added that about 200 families are also stuck near the hospital, not allowed to leave their homes. Meanwhile, about 100 dead bodies are decomposing in the courtyard of the hospital.

“We asked to be able to bury the bodies, but anyone who goes out into the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital gets shot,” said Zaqout.

While announcing the impending death of the neonatal intensive care unit at al-Shifa Hospital due to the lack of fuel to power incubators, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said they “are deeply concerned by uncritical media reporting regarding the Israeli military’s statement that it will help move premature babies trapped at the hospital to a ‘safer hospital.’”

“The only safe option to save these babies would be for Israel to cease its assault and besiegement of al-Shifa, to allow fuel to reach the hospital, and to ensure the surviving parents of these babies can be reunited with them.”

Similarly, at the Al-Nasr children’s hospital in the north of Gaza, Fadi Abu Riyala, an MSF healthcare worker on the ground in Gaza, says he was forced to abandon his patients and evacuate the Al-Nasr children’s hospital in the north of Gaza.

“In the ICU of Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital, we had to leave patients on their beds. We could not take any with us. There are patients in the reception area, still alive and breathing, and we were not able to take them with us,” he told Quds News Network.

When asked if Israel has a plan to get fuel into Gaza to power hospitals, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied, “We just offered Shifa hospital the fuel, they refused it.”

In response, Hamas said in a statement, “The offer belittles the pain and suffering of the patients who are trapped inside without water, food, or electricity. This quantity is not enough to operate hospital generators for more than 30 minutes.”

The group also clarified that they are not associated with Al-Shifa Hospital management or “part of its decision-making structures.”

Al-Shifa Hospital’s director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, corroborated this in an interview with Al Jazeera, “Israeli officials reached out to me twice about providing the hospital with fuel: once to offer 2,000 liters [440 gallons] and then another to offer 300 liters [80 gallons]. Keep in mind the hospital needs from 8,000 [2,113 gallons] to 12,000 liters [3,170 gallons] per day.”

“The same person called me at 2 a.m. and said the 300 litres can be picked up from a specific spot that is dangerous and susceptible to shelling. I told him to send it or a larger quantity so we can operate a generator via the Red Cross.”

“Israel wants to show the world that it is not killing babies. It wants to whitewash its image with 300 liters of fuel, which barely last 30 minutes,” Abu Salmiya continued.

On the subject of Hospitals in Gaza being subjected to Israeli fire, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS News’s Face the Nation program, “The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire, and we’ve had active consultations with the [Israeli army] on this,” however there have still been no safeguards or solutions put in place.

The Regional Directors of UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO are calling for immediate action to be taken to protect medical facilities in Gaza and halt Israel’s attacks on healthcare.

“Attacks on medical facilities and civilians are unacceptable and are a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and conventions. They cannot be condoned. The right to seek medical assistance, especially in times of crisis, should never be denied,” the agencies said.

“Unimpeded, safe and sustained access is needed now to provide fuel, medical supplies and water for these lifesaving services. The violence must end now.”

The Red Crescent reported seventy-six trucks carrying aid, including food, water, medical supplies, and medicine, entered Gaza on Sunday through the Rafah crossing, which is still far from enough for the population of over 2 million.

Before Israel’s attacks, it received over 500 relief trucks a day and has since received a total of 980 trucks.

Occupied West Bank: Elderly Palestinian man killed

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians continue to be killed at an alarming rate with impunity while the world is focused on Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

Monday morning, Israeli forces shot an elderly Palestinian man who was driving near the Islamic Charitable Society for the Care of Orphans in Hebron, as the military raided it, reported Wafa.

The military also conducted various other raids across the occupied territory, detaining over 50 Palestinians, most of whom were concentrated in the Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Hebron governorates.

Israeli forces have killed 187 Palestinians since October 7, including thirty in the West Bank northern city of Jenin.

Kamal Abu al-Rub, Jenin’s acting governor, told Al Jazeera that Israel is attacking the city and its refugee camp daily, turning it into a third front after Gaza and Lebanon.

“The successive raids on the city of Jenin, its camp, and surrounding villages, the targeting of civilians and ambulance crews, the road closures, and the attacks on mosques indicate that Israel is exacting revenge.”

According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), emergency medics in Jenin have been called to the public hospital almost every night as Israeli military incursions utilizing tanks and ground troops batter the city.

Abu al-Rub says residents are worried that Israel will carry out a major operation “in the coming days in light of the world’s preoccupation with the ongoing aggression in the Gaza Strip, and the world’s silence towards what’s happening there and in the West Bank.”

MSF reports at least 30 Palestinians were killed, with 162 injured, since October 7 in Jenin, emphasizing that some of the deaths could have been prevented if not for the Israeli army’s blocking of medical aid to the wounded.

“Israeli forces often block the entrance of the camp, making it nearly impossible for ambulances to get in and out with the critically wounded in time to save their lives,” the organization not

Regional tensions building up

As Israel’s attacks on Gaza intensify without restraint or respect for international law, the possibility of a regional war increases.

On Sunday, hours after Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited Israeli soldiers in northern occupied Palestine and warned Hezbollah not to provoke Israel, the Lebanese group attacked the border.

“If they keep attacking us, they will make the mistake of their lives,” Gallant had said.

According to Israel, seven Israeli soldiers and ten other people were wounded in the attacks for which Hezbollah claimed responsibility, saying they fired on an Israeli team installing “eavesdropping and spying devices” near the border.

The Israeli military confirmed that  “seven soldiers were lightly injured as a result of the mortar shell launches in the area of Manara in northern Israel earlier today,” identifying 15 launches from Lebanon within an hour, four of which were intercepted by defense systems as the rest fell into open areas.

Israel has said it responded to the attacks from Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Hamas claimed responsibility for shelling two Israeli towns bordering Lebanon, Na’ura and Shlomi, as well as northern Haifa.

During a news conference in Seoul, Korea, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the U.S. will carry out additional strikes on Iran-linked groups if attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria do not cease.

“These attacks must stop, and if they don’t stop, then we won’t hesitate to do what’s necessary, again, to protect the troops,” Austin said.

“What we are doing in Gaza we can do in Beirut,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Saturday after Austin stressed the need for Israel “to contain the conflict to Gaza and avoid regional escalation,” reported al Jazeera.