More hospitals in Gaza suspend operations, babies are dying

Two more major hospitals in Gaza closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying Israeli bombardment plus a lack of fuel and medicine would mean more babies could die.

Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave have been besieged by Israeli forces and are barely able to care for those inside, medical staff said, Reuters reports.

Gaza’s largest and second-largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, have said they are suspending operations.

With more dead and wounded daily, but half the hospitals now out of commission, there are fewer and fewer places for the injured.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to re-establish communication with health workers at Shifa, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the situation was “dire and dangerous” with constant gunfire and bombing exacerbating already critical circumstances.

“Tragically, the number of patient deaths has increased significantly,” he said
in a post on X and added: “Unfortunately, the hospital is no longer functioning as a hospital.”

The Israeli military said it had offered to evacuate newborn babies and placed 300 litres of fuel at the entrance to Al Shifa on Saturday evening, but that Hamas had blocked both gestures.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Shifa, said reports of diesel refusal were “lies and
slander”. Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, said that of the 45 babies in incubators at Shifa, three had already died. Shifa was out of reach for newborns, said Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, who is in contact with colleagues there. “Al-Shifa hospital is now not working, no one is allowed in, no one is allowed out,” he said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Al-Quds hospital was also not functioning, with staff struggling to care for those already there with little medicine, food and water.

Three UN agencies expressed horror at the situation in the hospitals, saying they had registered at least 137 attacks on health facilities in 36 days, resulting in 521 deaths and 686 injuries – including 16 dead and 38 injured medical personnel.