Human rights group calls for international investigation as footage filmed in Gaza City hospital ‘shows decomposing bodies of premature babies left in their beds to die after Israeli forces evacuate medics’

A human rights group has called on the world community to independently investigate why five Palestinian children were allegedly left to die in Gaza’s Al-Nasr hospital after staff were forcibly evacuated by the IDF.

The Switzerland-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said it could “confirm that it documented the discovery of five dead babies in a state of decomposition” in a neonatal ward at Al-Nasr Hospital.

The human rights monitor, led by former UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk, said the babies were left to die three weeks ago after staff were forced out of the hospital by the IDF, which attacked the hospital and surrounded it with tanks. .

Sickening but heavily censored footage, first shared by Arabic-language news channel Al Mashhad, shows five beds filled with what are believed to be the bodies of young children.

Hospital equipment, including health monitoring equipment, appears to have been long out of use, while the room itself appears to be in a state of abandonment.

MailOnline has not yet been able to independently verify the images.

A spokesperson for the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza supported the claims, adding that they were “premature.”

The spokesperson claimed that Israeli soldiers had blocked access to the ward where the children were found on Tuesday evening.

The hospital’s director, Dr. Mustafa Al-Kahlot, previously told CNN that he had asked several international organizations for help, but Euro-Med says he received no response.

Dr. Al-Kahlot said three weeks ago that the hospital was attacked twice by the IDF, rendering the facilities unusable, leading to the death of a child due to lack of oxygen.

“One attack targeted the hospital gate and the other targeted the wards in the hospital,” he said at the time.

“No one could reach the hospital and ambulances on the road were also targeted,” he added.

Video footage published by Arabic-language media appears to show at least two IDF tanks lurking in the Al-Nasr area.

The IDF said at the time that it had opened evacuation corridors from Al-Nasr, as well as the nearby Al-Shifa and Al-Rantsi hospitals.

The BBC reported that both Al-Nasr and Al-Rantsi were evacuated “except for a handful of patients and staff.” MailOnline was unable to verify the status of the people who remained.

The video shared at the time shows people, including patients and staff, under gunfire, waving white flags on IDF orders to show they were not combatants.

It is not clear where exactly the shots came from or who fired them.

The IDF has consistently accused Hamas of using hospitals across Gaza as shelters since it began its retaliation against the terror group’s Oct. 7 incursion, using this as justification to wage war in the areas around major hospitals, including Al- Nasr.

The White House backed the claims earlier this month, saying it had its own information that it was using Al-Shifa to conduct its military operations and stockpile weapons.

“We have information confirming that Hamas is using that particular hospital for command and control purposes” and likely to store weapons, national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One at the time.

“That’s a war crime.”

‘To be clear, we are not in favor of bombing a hospital from the air. “We don’t want to see a shootout in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people and sick people are simply trying to get the medical care they deserve,” he said.

The bloodiest conflict between Israel and Hamas in decades has led to thousands of civilian deaths.

According to Israeli counts, Hamas killed 1,200 people during its Oct. 7 raid, while nearly 15,000 civilians were killed in IDF retaliation in the nearly eight weeks of the conflict.

Experts told the New York Times last week that the rate at which civilians in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are women and children, have been killed is shocking.

The Health Ministry, which the UN says is a reliable source of information, said about 6,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

A 2022 UN report said that a total of fewer than 3,000 children died last year in all the world’s major conflict zones.

UN chief António Guterres warned earlier this month: ‘Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children.

‘Hundreds of boys and girls are reportedly killed or injured every day.

“The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent by the hour.”

Hamas handed over twelve Israeli and four Thai hostages tonight on the sixth and apparently final day of the precarious and temporary ceasefire.

The ceasefire was extended for two days on Monday, hours before the original agreement was due to expire.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement halting fighting in the Gaza Strip, it can be extended beyond the initial four-day deadline, as long as 10 hostages are released for each additional day, and in return three times as many Palestinians are released.

The deal is believed to be on the rocks and appears to be on the verge of unraveling. Hamas had accused Israel of breaching the agreement and Israel threatened to resume its deadly attack on the Gaza Strip.

But mediators were able to bring the case back from the brink, a feat that marked the first-ever public visit by Qatari officials to Israel, according to AP.

It is currently unknown when or if the ceasefire agreement will be extended.

MailOnline has contacted the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor