JERUSALEM: The lives of at least 120 newborn babies on incubators in war-torn Gaza’s hospitals are at risk as fuel runs out in the besieged enclave, the UN children’s agency warned on Sunday.
More than 1,750 children have already been killed by Israeli strikes launched against the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the October 7 attacks, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Hospitals face a dire lack of medicines, fuel and water not only for the thousands wounded in more than two weeks of the war between Gaza and Israel but also for routine patients.
“We have currently 120 neonates who are in incubators, out of which we have 70 neonates with mechanical ventilation, and of course this is where we are extremely concerned,” said UNICEF spokesman Jonathan Crickx.
Power is one of the main worries for the seven specialist wards across Gaza treating premature babies to help with breathing and provide critical support.
Israel ordered a complete blockade of the territory after the Oct. 7 attacks, in which 1,400 people killed.
Amid widespread electricity cuts, the World Health Organization warned that hospitals had already run out of fuel for generators.
The WHO said that about 1,000 people needing dialysis will also be at risk if the generators stop.
Twenty aid trucks crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Saturday but there was no fuel in the consignment.
The limited supplies still in Gaza were being diverted to keep the generators for medical equipment running.
“If they (babies) are put in mechanical ventilation incubators if you cut the electricity, we are worried about their lives,” the Unicef spokesman said.
Health ministry said on Saturday that 130 premature babies were in danger of dying due to the lack of fuel.
Around 160 women give birth each day in Gaza, according to the UN Population Fund, which estimates there are 50,000 pregnant women across the territory of 2.4 million people.
Children make up a huge proportion of the 4,385 dead reported by the health ministry.
Whole families, including pregnant women, have been killed in strikes and each day parents can be seen in devastated streets carrying the bodies of infants in white shrouds.
Doctors at Najjar hospital in Rafah spoke of how they had tried in vain to save an unborn infant from a woman killed in an air strike on her family’s home. — AFP
If they (babies) are put in mechanical ventilation incubators if you cut the electricity, we are worried about
their lives
Unicef spokesman
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