:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/mentormedier/K57MWJCVUFEFK3YU66INDEWJEU.jpg "The Red Crescent evacuated 31 babies from Gaza’s largest hospital – Dagsavisen")
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Sunday afternoon that the babies had arrived safely at a hospital in southern Gaza.
They were transported south on Sunday by ambulance personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent, the aid organization wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
The evacuation was coordinated with the World Health Organization and the UN Office of Emergency Assistance (OCHA).
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said the children had been transferred to a hospital in Rafah in the far south, and they would be sent to a hospital in Egypt with their families on Monday.
The babies were among 291 patients who were unable to leave hospital on Saturday. Some 2,500 patients, staff and Palestinian refugees then left the hospital on foot. About 25 health workers also remain at the hospital to treat the remaining patients.
The condition of the babies was described as very critical by WHO, which stated that 32 babies were still being treated in hospital.
– A “dead zone”
After the UN team was allowed to visit the hospital for an hour on Saturday, WHO immediately requested the evacuation of the last patients.
“Patients and health workers they spoke to were frightened and fearful for their health and lives, and they pleaded for evacuation,” WHO wrote in a statement, with Shifa hospital described as a “dead zone”.
At the hospital, there are still injured patients with seriously infected wounds and there are also those who are paralyzed due to injuries to the spine.
Miss everything
Israeli soldiers moved into buildings at the hospital on Wednesday. In recent days, staff and patients have had no access to electricity or medicine.
Doctors and eyewitnesses said that the Israeli military gave them one hour to evacuate the hospital, and that was when Israeli soldiers followed the evacuation with weapons in hand. Israel, for its part, claims that it is only complying with requests to let the people go.
WHO confirmed that the military ordered evacuations, as they had done several times before.
Read more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here
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