Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza “suspended operations” due to a power outage on Saturday, resulting in the deaths of three babies, officials at the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said.
Officials say the neonatal unit of the city’s largest hospital is now performing CPR, CNN reports. There are currently 36 babies and 400 patients receiving active treatment in the unit, plus 20,000 people seeking shelter from Israeli fire in the compound.
“The intensive care unit, the pediatric unit and the oxygen machines have stopped working,” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, told CNN on Sunday.
Israel’s defense minister calls for a ‘total siege’ of the Gaza Strip two days after Hamas’s surprise attack
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dr. Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, told CNN that the building, which had been a safe haven for many amid the war, was “besieged from all four directions” by Israeli forces. Now staff and patients are trapped inside the compound, unable to leave and without electricity, Hamas ministry officials said.
In the past, the Israel Defense Forces have told people to move south, away from the Al-Shifa compound in northern Gaza, after concerns that Hamas was using security infrastructure to carry out military operations.
It was also reported on Saturday that Gaza has only seven ambulances in the city, compared to 18 run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
“Our teams are witnessing numerous casualties and wounded individuals, but are facing challenges in reaching them due to Israeli military targeting of ambulances approaching the affected areas,” the PRCS said in a statement to CNN.
Gaza hospitals in ‘total chaos’ treating civilians amid ‘crisis’ situation: reports
This comes a week after CNN reported that Israel claimed responsibility for the attack on an ambulance outside Al-Shifa Hospital on November 4.
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Of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents, approximately 1.7 million are Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA. More than 123,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced since fighting escalated on Saturday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
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Source: HIS Education