Gaza City: Doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital Al-Shifa are making desperate efforts to keep premature babies alive as the facility runs out of power, water, and other critical resources due to the ongoing conflict.
With the neonatal unit not functioning, the premature infants have been moved out of incubators into other wards and are being wrapped in foil and kept near hot water bottles to maintain body warmth.
Director Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya said: “I was with them a while ago. They are now exposed because we have taken them out of the incubators. We wrap them in foil and put hot water next to them so we can warm them.
The head of pediatrics Dr. Mohamed Tabasha said the number of babies in his care has dropped from 39 to 36 in a day, highlighting the grim mortality situation.
Doctors say without incubators and stable conditions, the newborns’ survival remains under severe threat. Generators, water supply, and oxygen cylinders are also fast depleting.
The Gaza health ministry said six premature babies and nine patients have died since electrical shortages began last week. The World Health Organisation said al-Shifa was no longer functioning as a hospital. There is constant gunfire and bombing in the area, it added.
Doctors have defied the Israeli Defense Force’s orders to evacuate, fearing the lives of hundreds of critical patients could be endangered if shifted amid heavy shelling.
The acute deprivation of resources due to the blockade and the latest conflict has pushed Gaza’s health system into a state of deep crisis, making the survival of vulnerable newborns extremely precarious.
