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Taken out of the incubators at al-Shifa hospital in the hope of survival. Israel has struck an iron ring. Few dare to flee.
INCUBATOR: The children in the picture belong in incubators, says Mads Gilbert. Photo: Private Show more
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Published Saturday 11 November 2023 – 23:43
Last updated Sunday 12 November 2023 – 00:17
Saturday afternoon doctor and surgeon Mads Gilbert received this photo (above) from a doctor at the besieged al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The message to Gilbert, who is in Egypt’s capital Cairo, read as follows:
“38 premature babies have been moved to the department for cardiac surgery in an open environment. They are no longer in incubators because the oxygen generator was destroyed last night.”
Israeli forces attacked the building where two oxygen concentrators were located on Friday evening. As a result, the oxygen supply to the hospital disappeared. Surgeon Erik Fosse, Mads Gilbert’s colleague in the Norwegian humanitarian organization NORWAC, tells me that he is convinced that the Israelis knew what they were shooting at.
Three of those born prematurely at al-Shifa hospital were already dead when they were moved on Saturday afternoon.
– They are no longer in incubators because these can no longer be operated. The incubators lack electricity, heat and humidity, and they lack oxygen. Then the children must be taken out. If not, the incubators will become a death trap, says Gilbert.
The children are in mortal danger anyway, he says.
The children are lying on the floor in the heart surgery room, well wrapped in blankets and clothes to keep warm, is the message.
Gilbert didn’t know much more Saturday night. The X message from surgeon Marwan Abusada at al-Shifa hospital was one of the few reports that came out of the hospital during the day. Gilbert, who along with Erik Fosse has traveled to Gaza to provide medical assistance to the Palestinians every time the area has been under attack from the Israelis, has worked with Abusada for 16 years.
This time, Fosse and Gilbert have not been allowed into Gaza. Few have done that.
The two oxygen concentrators at the hospital were financed and previously operated by NORWAC. This work was already started in the 1990s.
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There are fierce battles going on around Shifa Hospital. The Israeli army, the IDF, claims that Hamas has an underground headquarters under the hospital area, which is strongly denied, both by medical personnel, foreign doctors and international organizations.
There are at least 600 patients at al-Shifa hospital, and many of these are so badly injured that they could die under the current circumstances. Doctors and nurses have been desperately asking the international community for help for many days, but nothing has happened. Hospital services have in reality collapsed completely.
There is a lack of electricity, water, food and medicine.
There are also said to be approximately 14,000 Palestinian civilians around this area. The Israelis have previously said that the patients must be evacuated, but that is impossible. Many are too ill to be moved, and anyway there is a lack of ambulances.
The civilians do not dare to flee either. The Israelis have placed an iron ring around the hospital. According to several people who work at the hospital, including from Doctors Without Borders, several people who have tried to escape have been shot.
A few have managed to get away. Most don’t.
2023-11-11 22:44:46
#babies #danger
