The Israeli military said on Saturday it would help evacuate babies from Gaza's largest hospital, which has been plagued by intense fighting between Palestinian soldiers and fighters.
"The staff at Al-Shifa Hospital requested that tomorrow (Saturday) we help evacuate babies from the paediatric ward to a safer hospital. We will provide the necessary assistance," army spokesman Daniel Hagari told a news conference. He did not specify how many babies were affected.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli NGO Physician for Human Rights-Israel reported that "two premature babies (had) died" after neonatal intensive care was forced to stop due to a lack of electricity at the hospital.
MSF sounds the alarm
She also warned of the risk to "37 other premature babies" in the ward, due to fighting between Israeli troops and terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Palestinian Islamist movements, in the vicinity of the facility.
Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon at the facility working for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also reported the deaths of the two newborns and said that one adult patient had also died because his ventilator had stopped due to lack of electricity.
"We want someone to guarantee the evacuation of patients, because we have about 600 patients in hospital," the doctor said in an audio recording released by MSF.
Thousands of refugees in hospitals
"We share (Israel's) pain. And we share their desire to get rid of terrorism," French President Emmanuel Macron told the BBC on Friday night. But "de facto, today, civilians are being bombed. These babies, these women, these elderly people are being bombed and killed," he said. There is "no justification" and "no legitimacy for this. So we urge Israel to stop," he said.
In addition to the patients, thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in the compound as Israel relentlessly shells the small Palestinian territory in response to the unprecedented Hamas attack on its soil on October 7, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas' health ministry.