The lives of 120 babies in incubators are in danger as fuel runs out for electric generators in the Gaza Stripwarned today the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
More than 1,750 children have died in Israeli bombings against the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the attack launched on October 7 by Hamas in Israel, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Hospitals in the Hamas-ruled enclave, which is under complete siege by Israel, are facing a severe lack of medicine, fuel and water for thousands of war-wounded and routine patients.
“Currently, there are 120 neonates in incubators, 70 of them with mechanical ventilation and, of course, we are enormously worried”declared Unicef spokesperson Jonathan Crickx to the AFP news agency.
Electricity is a major concern at the strip’s seven specialized units that treat premature babies, helping them breathe and providing critical support, for example, when their organs are underdeveloped.
The need for fuel for hospitals
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned last week that hospitals no longer have fuel for generators, and that about 1,000 people needing dialysis would also be at risk.
Thirty-seven trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Strip from Egypt between Saturday and Sunday, but it was not clear if they were carrying fuel.
Israel fears fuel will help Hamasdespite the fact that the little that remains in Gaza is used for generators to keep medical equipment running.
The Gaza Health Ministry declared yesterday that 130 premature babies were in danger of dying due to lack of fuel.
Some 160 women give birth every day in Gaza, according to the UN Population Fund, which estimates that there are 50,000 pregnant women in the territory of 2.4 million inhabitants.
Although Israel claims to target Hamas, children account for a huge proportion of the more than 4,600 deaths recorded by Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Entire families, including pregnant women, have died in the attacksand every day parents are seen carrying the bodies of their children in white shrouds down the street.
Doctors at the Najjar hospital in Rafah told AFP on Thursday how they had tried in vain to save the fetus of a woman who died in an airstrike on her home.
Hours earlier, eight children died while sleeping in a house in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip.
Source: Ambito
