Palestinian authorities proposed a Red Cross-supervised evacuation of a hospital beset by fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, as health officials warned that the only way to save three dozen newborns trapped there would be to call a cease-fire and transport them out of the besieged territory.
After days of battles with Palestinian militants, Israeli forces have encircled Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people are trapped with dwindling supplies and without electricity to run incubators and other equipment.
Gaza's largest hospital has emerged as a symbol of Palestinian suffering in the war between Israel and Hamas that extends far beyond its walls. Only one hospital in the territory's north is still capable of receiving patients, and about 200,000 Palestinians have streamed out of the area toward worsening conditions in the south in recent days, the U.N. humanitarian office said Tuesday.
The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas' surprise attack into Israel, in which militants killed hundreds of civilians and dragged some 240 hostages back to Gaza. The conflict has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and wreaked widespread destruction on the impoverished enclave.
Hamas released a video late Monday showing one of the hostages, who identifies herself as 19-year-old Noa Marciano, before and after she was killed in what Hamas said was an Israeli strike. The military later declared her a fallen soldier, without identifying a cause of death.
She is the first hostage confirmed to have died in captivity. Four were released by Hamas and a fifth was rescued by Israeli forces.
PLIGHT OF HOSPITALS
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters, and alleged that the militants have set up their main command center in and beneath Shifa. Israel says these claims are based on intelligence but has not provided visual evidence to support them.
Both Hamas and Shifa Hospital staff deny the allegations, and the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says it has invited international organizations to investigate the facility.
The ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, have died since the hospital's emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. The military said it placed fuel several blocks from Shifa, but Hamas militants prevented staff from reaching it — an allegation the ministry denied, saying instead it was too dangerous for staff to venture out.
According to the ministry, 36 babies remain who are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators.
The Israeli military said it had started an effort to transfer incubators to Shifa. But Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said they would be useless without electricity and that the only way to save the newborns was to move them out of Gaza.
“Another hospital under siege or under attack is not a viable solution. Nowhere is safe in Gaza right now,” he told The Associated Press. He said an evacuation would require specialized equipment and a cease-fire along the route.
Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said it has proposed evacuating the hospital with the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and transferring the patients to hospitals in Egypt, but has not received any response. He said 120 bodies will be buried in a mass grave inside the hospital because they are unable to safely transport them to cemeteries.
International law gives hospitals special protections during war. Hospitals can lose those protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, but staff and patients must be given plenty of warning to evacuate, and the harm to civilians cannot be disproportionate to the military objective.
On Monday, the military released footage of a children’s hospital that its forces entered over the weekend, showing weapons it said it found inside, as well as rooms in the basement where it believes militants were holding hostages. The video showed what appeared to be a hastily installed toilet and ventilation system in the basement.
The Health Ministry rejected the allegations, saying the area had been turned into a shelter for displaced people.
The Red Cross tried Monday to evacuate some 6,000 people from another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds, but said its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting.
WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)
