Thirty-one Palestinian premature babies have been evacuated from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, which the World Health Organization (WHO) calls a “death zone.”
The babies have been taken to an Emirati hospital in the southern city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
Hundreds of people, including patients, left Shifa on Saturday.
The hospital is the largest and most modern in the region and is controlled by the Israeli army.
They have been searching the complex for evidence that it serves as a Hamas headquarters.
Hundreds of people, including some patients, evacuated the hospital on Saturday, but about 300 critically ill patients and 33 premature babies remained. The Red Crescent announced to the BBC that one baby died on Friday night and another on Saturday morning.
On Sunday, the Red Crescent Society coordinated with the United Nations to evacuate the 31 surviving infants.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the babies were “very ill” and were moved to “extremely stressful and high-risk security conditions” and are currently receiving “urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit” in Rafah.
Dr. Mohammad Zakter, the director of a hospital in the Gaza Strip, told The Associated Press that some babies are dehydrated or suffering from gastritis from drinking unsterilized water. A lack of medication caused others to develop sepsis, and some developed hypothermia because they couldn’t fit into incubators.
Dr Tedros said the babies were accompanied by six health workers and 10 family members of the staff.
Doctors at Shifa Hospital had previously said the newborn died after the power supply to the incubator was cut off due to lack of fuel.
Red Crescent accuser Nebar al-Fassah told the BBC that some parents of premature babies had been killed in Israeli air strikes. The BBC could not independently confirm this.
She said the surviving parents had been ordered to leave Gaza City, where al-Shifa hospital is located, before the baby was evacuated and their whereabouts were unknown.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s Facebook page urged the baby’s parents to go to Rafah Hospital to be reunited with their baby.
Israel has not yet commented but has previously said it would help move the baby to a “safer hospital.”
He said WHO was planning a further mission to get remaining patients and staff out of Shifa once safe passage was guaranteed.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Salima, director of Shifa Hospital, called on the World Health Organization and the United Nations to help medical teams and patients “leave this desolate place.”
He told BBC Arabic that about 25 medical staff remained at the hospital, but without water and electricity they were unable to properly care for the hundreds of remaining patients.
“Right now, this hospital is a complete haunted house,” he said.
He said: “The emergency room is littered with corpses, the patients are screaming, the medical staff are helpless, and the military is walking freely in the hospital.”
Israel says Hamas maintains a command center under Shifa – a claim Hamas denies – but has yet to provide substantive evidence.
Late on Sunday, the Israeli military released a video it said showed “a terrifying 55m tunnel 10m deep beneath the Shifa hospital”. The video shows a tunnel leading to a door. The IDF said investigations “are continuing to identify the tunnel’s route.”
Earlier this week, Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conrics said a full search of the medical center could take weeks.
Hamas, listed as a terrorist organization by many Western countries, attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages.
Israel launched a massive retaliatory campaign, including air and artillery strikes as well as ground forces, aimed at wiping out Hamas.
The Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll in Gaza has since reached 12,300. It is feared that more than 2,000 people are still buried under the rubble.