29 Babies Evacuated from Gaza Hospital Arrive in Egypt

Gaza: Twenty-nine premature babies were evacuated from war-torn Gaza to Egypt on Monday as the Hamasrun health ministry accused Israel of launching a deadly strike on the territory’s Indonesian Hospital. Frantic diplomatic efforts were meanwhile underway to seal a deal for the release of some of the 240 hostages Hamas took during their October 7 attacks on Israel. The Gaza health ministry charged that Israel’s army killed at least 12 people in a strike on the Indonesian Hospital in the Palestinian territory’s north, a war zone where entire city blocks have been reduced to rubble. Those killed included patients, said Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman of the ministry which has reported a death count of more than 13,000 as the Gaza war rages on into its seventh week. Dozens more were wounded and around 700 people remained trapped inside the “besieged” medical center, Qudra said.Israel did not immediately comment but pushed on with its withering air and ground campaign aimed at destroying Hamas in response to the October 7 attacks it says killed 1,200 people. More than 2.4 million Palestinians are trapped in besieged Gaza and only a few hundred war-wounded and foreign passport holders have been allowed out. On Monday, Egyptian media reported that 29 premature babies evacuated from Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, had been taken to safety in Egypt through the Rafah crossing. A medical source told AFP the infants would be treated at El-Arish hospital 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of the Gaza Strip or be taken to Ismailia or Cairo. The bloodiest-ever Gaza war has seen Israeli troops raid, occupy, and evacuate Al-Shifa hospital in recent days, spurring hundreds to flee the area on foot toward southern Gaza. Israel, backed by the United States, argues that Hamas has used vast tunnel networks below Al-Shifa for military purposes. It has shown recovered weapons but has yet to reveal evidence of a major military headquarters below ground. After another Gaza building was hit, in Deir al-Balah south of Gaza City on Sunday, rescuers searched through the debris for survivors and bodies, using the lights of their mobile phones in the rain. “There are only children and women in the house and no one else,” exclaimed one resident.

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