Cairo, Nov 20 (EFE). – The 28 premature babies evacuated Sunday from the Gaza Strip to Egypt are in “critical condition,” medical sources told EFE, while the World Health Organization (WHO) said 12 of them were flown to Cairo.
Sources from the Al Arish hospital said that “most or even all” of the babies evacuated through the Rafah border crossing that connects Gaza to Egypt are in “critical condition,” while noting that 16 of them remain in this hospital center in the North Sinai province.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on his X (formerly Twitter) account that “all the babies are battling serious infections and other conditions and need specialized medical care,” he added.
28 newborns arrived in Egypt on Monday after 31 were evacuated on Sunday from Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, the largest in the Strip, and transferred to the south of the Palestinian enclave in preparation for their entry into Egyptian territory.
According to Ghebreyesus, 12 babies were flown to Cairo and three others are still being treated at Al Emarati hospital in southern Gaza.
The Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the newborns were transferred to other, unspecified hospitals to provide them with the “highest level of medical care” due to their deteriorating health.
Likewise, sources from the Al Arish hospital previously told EFE that five mothers were also evacuated and arrived at the hospital to be reunited with their children.
Ghebreyesus warned on Sunday that the 31 babies were “very sick” and were evacuated from Al Shifa in six Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances, along with six health workers and ten relatives of the workers.
The newborns had been patients at al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest medical facility, where several others had died after their incubators stopped working for lack of fuel as medical services collapsed during the Israeli military’s operation in Gaza City. EFE
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