28 premature Gaza babies transported to Egypt for life-saving medical treatment

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- More than two dozen premature Palestinian babies were transported to Egypt from Gaza on Monday morning for life-saving specialist medical care, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

PRCS ambulances carrying the 28 infants departed Rafah's Emirati Hospital for the Rafah Crossing just after 10 a.m. local time in readiness for their transfer to Egyptian hospitals in an operation coordinated with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the society posted on X.

The babies arrived through the Rafah crossing shortly afterward where they were met by medical professionals with incubators, CNN reported.

Dr. Mohammed Salama, head of the neonatal unit at the hospital told the BBC that it was not immediately clear where the babies would go upon arriving in Egypt.

"A committee from the Egyptian Health Ministry will receive them and then will decide," he said.

The transfer came hours after 31 babies were evacuated Sunday from the strip's main Al-Shifa hospital which has ceased operating and been dubbed a "death zone" by the WHO after being occupied by Israeli forces which claim it was being used as a Hamas command center.

No reason has been provided for the discrepancy in the number of babies taken to Emirati Hospital and the number being brought to Egypt -- but the BBC reported that the parents of two babies did not give their consent and Gaza Health Ministry officials ruled a third should remain put because he was unidentified and his parents were not known to them.

"Some of the parents arrived yesterday at al-Ahli Emirates hospital to identify their babies," Salama told the BBC. "We asked them to sign a consent form so that their babies will be sent to receive treatment in Egypt."