Gaza babies evacuated

28 premature babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza to Egypt.

Now comes an update many have been waiting for.

The majority of the babies have recovered, says Osama al-Khouly, head of the neonatal intensive care unit at Cairo Hospital.

It was in mid-November that the images were spread around the world.

31 premature babies had been forced to survive for days without incubators as al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, slowly collapsed as a result of Israel’s war against Hamas.

The babies had been exposed to cold and the risk of infection. Medical staff tried to keep them warm by huddling them all in a bed.

Electricity and fuel shortages combined with the Israeli military (IDF) occupying the hospital, where Hamas, according to the IDF, had a command center, made the situation untenable.

A number of infants had already died.

“Deeply moved”

After the World Health Organization (WHO) was allowed to visit the hospital, it was concluded that the hospital was “a death zone”.

Together with the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent, the risky operation was carried out on November 19, and the 31 babies were taken to a specialist hospital in southern Gaza.

– We are deeply moved and impressed by the extraordinary courage and helpfulness that the healthcare workers in Gaza have shown. They now continue to work under very difficult conditions, wrote WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on social media platform X.

Taken to Cairo

Two days later, the majority of the babies – 28 – were evacuated again. The four who remained were said to be stable enough to be cared for in Gaza.

This time, with the help of the Red Crescent, the babies were brought out of Gaza, to the Administrative Capital Hospital in Cairo, Egypt.

And almost three weeks later, an update is now coming.

Osama al-Khouly, director of the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital, says according to Sky News that some of the babies are still in a critical condition.

But the majority of them are recovering.