28 premature babies evacuated from Gazan hospital arrive in Egypt

Twenty-eight premature babies who had been in intensive care at the controversial Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza were transported across the border to Egypt for medical care on Monday, Egyptian state television Al Qahera News reported.

The babies had become a symbol of the suffering of civilians at the hospital, which was surrounded by Israeli forces last week and then raided.

“Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance teams departed from the front of the Emirati Hospital in Rafah to transport 28 premature babies to the Rafah Crossing in preparation for their transfer to medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals,” said the Red Crescent on X, formerly Twitter. Al Qahera News later reported that the ambulances had crossed the border.

Thirty-one premature babies were evacuated from Al-Shifa on Sunday and taken to southern Gaza, the Red Crescent and according to the World Health Organization. It was not immediately clear why all 31 had not been transferred to Egypt.

The WHO, a U.N. agency, said in a statement on Sunday that 11 of the babies were in critical condition and all were battling serious infections. No one was accompanied by relatives. The agency said two others died before they could be evacuated from Al-Shifa.

UNICEF, which said it had taken part in the “extremely dangerous” evacuation, said the babies’ conditions were “deteriorating rapidly.” It said the babies were transferred to Rafah in temperature-controlled incubators.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reported a photo on X of an employee in a blue UN helmet and bulletproof vest scooping up a small child. The babies, along with six health care workers and 10 family members of hospital staff, were evacuated “under extremely intense and risky security conditions,” he wrote.

Authorities in Israel have said they have evidence that Hamas, the group that attacked Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,200 people, had a headquarters under Al-Shifa, something both Hamas and doctors there deny.

Israel’s attempt to take Al-Shifa caused a struggle for survival there. Doctors and health officials warned that nearly 40 premature babies were particularly at risk. Some were born to mothers killed in airstrikes or who died shortly after giving birth, Al-Shifa doctors said. Some were the only survivors in their families.