Babies in Gaza forced to share oxygen masks due to Israeli hospital blockade

(Patria) - Israel has repeatedly rejected a request to transfer incubators from an evacuated hospital in northern Gaza, a UN children's agency official said, further straining already overcrowded hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip, where newborns are now sharing oxygen masks with each other.

Due to two years of war between Israel and Hamas, pregnant women are increasingly stressed and malnourished, leading to a rise in the number of premature and underweight babies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), such cases now account for a fifth of all newborns in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past month, as a result of the Israeli offensive on Gaza City in the northern part of the Strip, hospitals in that area have been closed, further burdening the already overcrowded hospitals in the south that remain operational.

James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson, says mothers and babies are lining the hallways of the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, and that premature babies must share oxygen masks and beds. Meanwhile, vital pediatric equipment remains stuck in evacuated hospitals in the north.

- We have been trying to retrieve incubators from an evacuated hospital in the north, and four attempts to obtain even those incubators have been denied - he told Reuters via video link from Gaza, referring to supplies now stranded in the damaged Al-Rantisi children's hospital in Gaza City.

Meanwhile, at the southern hospital Elder visited, "in one of the pediatric rooms, there were three babies and three mothers on a single bed, one oxygen source, and the mothers rotated the oxygen for 20 minutes per child. That is the level of despair mothers are now facing."

Israel's COGAT, the military branch overseeing aid flow, has not yet responded to a request for comment on UNICEF's statements. Israel says it is committed to allowing aid deliveries to Gaza, but that such aid must be controlled to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas, which it blames for the crisis.

The UN humanitarian office stated today that Israel has rejected or prevented 45 percent of the 8,000 requested humanitarian missions in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

UNICEF has called for the evacuation of sick and premature babies remaining in hospitals in northern Gaza. The WHO last week transferred three of them to a hospital further south in the enclave, but said one had already died before that mission was carried out. Only 14 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are currently at least partially functional, according to the WHO.