GAZA: A group of 28 premature babies from Gaza were evacuated on Monday from a hospital inside the bombarded Palestinian enclave into Egypt to receive treatment, according to Egyptian television footage and a Palestinian hospital doctor.
Medical staff on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing were seen carefully picking up tiny babies from inside ambulances and placing them in mobile incubators, which were then wheeled across a car park toward other ambulances.
The babies, from a total of 31 who were moved on Sunday from the besieged Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to a maternity hospital in southern Gaza as a first step toward evacuation, wore only nappies and tiny green hats.
“The babies arrived to me from Al Shifa Hospital. They were in a catastrophic condition when they got here,” said Dr. Mohammad Salama, head of the neonatal unit at the Al-Helal Al-Emairati Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza.
“Some were suffering from malnutrition, others from dehydration and some from low temperatures. We have worked in order to make their conditions stable during the past 24 hours,” he told Reuters by telephone.
“As soon as we got the call to prepare the babies, we got them prepared and ready to travel.”
Salama said some of the babies were with their mothers, while others who did not have relatives with them were accompanied by medical staff. In some cases where their mothers were dead or missing, other relatives signed consent forms for the transfer, he said.
The Egyptian government footage from the Rafah crossing showed incubators being lifted into ambulances and one doctor connecting an oximeter to a baby’s foot.
Eight babies died
The newborn babies have captured global attention since images emerged eight days ago of them lying side by side on beds at Al Shifa Hospital after their incubators were switched off for lack of power amid Israel’s military assault on Gaza City.
When doctors at Al Shifa raised the alarm about them, there were 39 babies. Since then, eight have died.
The doctors had said the conditions at Al Shifa were highly dangerous for them, with no infection control, insufficient sterilization equipment, a lack of clean water and medicines, and no possibility of tailoring the temperature and humidity levels to their individual needs.
Israeli military operations have been taking place at Al Shifa and medical care can no longer be provided there due to a lack of power, water, medicines and other basics, according to the World Health Organization.
The war was triggered by fighters from Hamas who rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, including children and babies, and abducting 240, according to Israeli figures.
Israel has responded with a relentless bombardment of Gaza and a ground invasion. At least 13,000 Palestinians, including 5,500 children, have been killed, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave. Three quarters of Gazans have been made homeless by the war, according to UN figures.
Limited evacuations have been taking place since Nov. 1 through the Rafah crossing, the only exit and entry point for Gaza that does not border Israel, though departures have been suspended several times due to bombardments on the Gaza side.
So far, more than 6,700 foreigners, dual nationals and their dependents have been evacuated, according to Egypt’s state information service.
More than 230 people, including civilians wounded in the conflict, have been evacuated for medical care, with some cancer patients being flown out of Egypt for specialized treatment.
Israel and Egypt have maintained a tight blockade of the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control there in 2007, strictly controlling the movement of people and goods across the border.
Egypt has repeatedly rejected any mass displacement of Gazans, saying Palestinians should stay on their land.
Medics transfer 28 premature babies from Gaza to Egypt
https://arab.news/gru88
Medics transfer 28 premature babies from Gaza to Egypt
- Babies have captured global attention since images emerged of them at Al Shifa Hospital after incubators were switched off for lack of power
CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza
- Israel resumed combat operations after a seven-day temporary truce with Hamas
- Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City has been destroyed in the Israeli offensive
DUBAI: CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman lost nine relatives in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza, CNN reported.
Dahman had escaped to Egypt with his family, but on Sunday heard news that at least nine family members were killed when the building they were living in Beit Lahia took a direct hit by an Israeli strike.
His uncle, and the uncle’s wife, daughter and two grandchildren, as well as his aunt, her husband and two children perished, while at least two other relatives are in critical condition and others are still buried under the rubble.
Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City was also destroyed in a separate strike on an adjacent building the same day, CNN reported.
“I will never be able to forget every stone and corner of the house in which I was born and raised and in which my children were born,” Dahman said in the CNN report.
“They were extremely peaceful and simple people, and their entire lives were devoted solely to work and raising their sons and daughters. They have no affiliation with any organization or group… Pray to God to have mercy on them all.”
Dahman’s brother had earlier called to tell him that his home in Gaza City, where he was born and grew up, has been reduced to ruins by the Israeli bombardment.
He had just finished renovating the apartment months before the Hamas attack, and told CNN he had fond memories living there, including celebrating his sons’ birthdays with cake and candles surrounded by family.
“Unfortunately, I left all my memories, my belongings, and the gifts that my bosses sent me at work in this house, all of which were lost under the rubble now.”
Israel’s military resumed combat operations against Hamas in Gaza last week after accusing Hamas of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.
The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.
Israel has sworn to annihilate the Palestinian militant group, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage when Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Putin lands in Abu Dhabi on Middle East visit: UAE state media
- UAE President welcomes Russian leader at an official reception held at Qasr Al-Watan
ABU DHABI: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday landed in the United Arab Emirates for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union, UAE state media reported, as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage.
“Putin’s plane has landed in Abu Dhabi,” the state-run RIA Novosti also reported on social media, while Russian state television showed Putin being greeted by officials on the runway.
The Russian president’s plane was accompanied by a number of military aircraft to greet Putin upon entering the UAE airspace.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed greeted Putin at an official reception held at Qasr Al-Watan. The Russian leader’s convoy was accompanied by a group of honor guards mounted on Arabian horses.
The two countries’ national anthems were played and a 21-gun salute fired as part of a welcoming ceremony, WAM reported.
An Emirati air display then followed, painting the sky in the colors of the Russian flag.
Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say what kind of animals were in the capsule.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule into space.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other space crafts. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
It says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The US and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.
Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim
DUBAI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Navy have seized two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tasnim said 34 foreign crew have been detained by the Guards in the operation.
Iran, which has some of the world’s cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.
Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says
- Lebanese army say the soldier, a sergeant, was killed when an army position was shelled by Israel on Tuesday
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Wednesday it was reviewing a strike that harmed Lebanese troops in south Lebanon, an apparent reference to Israeli shelling that killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded three others the previous day.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike. The IDF expresses regret over the incident. The incident is under review,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel and the heavily armed Lebanese group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border since the start of the war between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7.
The Lebanese army said the soldier, a sergeant, was killed when an army position was shelled by Israel on Tuesday.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had acted in “self defense to eliminate an imminent threat that had been identified from Lebanon” from a “known launch area and observation point” used by Hezbollah.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon UNIFIL noted in a statement on Tuesday it was the first Lebanese army soldier killed during the hostilities, and that the Lebanese army had not engaged in conflict with Israel.
