Hope at last for the babies born into war: 28 premature newborns evacuated from Al Shifa hospital are wrapped up in hats and blankets as they are transferred from Gaza warzone to Egypt

Twenty-eight premature babies evacuated from Al Shifa hospital were wrapped up in hats and blankets as they were transferred from the Gaza warzone to Egypt today. 

The tiny newborns, with bright blue woolly hats placed on their small heads, were carefully placed on stretchers before being put in an ambulance heading away from the bombs and carnage of Gaza. 

The premature babies, so small that six could fit on each stretcher, were transported across the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, where they will receive specialist care in a local hospital. 

The newborns, who weigh less than 3.3 pounds (1.5kg) each and in some cases only 800 grams, were evacuated on Sunday from the Al Shifa hospital, which the World Health Organization has described as a 'death zone' as Israel seeks to uncover what it says are Hamas bases in tunnels underneath the facility.

The babies, wrapped in warm blankets, were taken on Sunday to a hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza so their condition could be stabilised ahead of transfer to Egypt.

An initial 31 babies in 'extremely critical condition' were reported evacuated from Al-Shifa to another Gaza clinic. 

The WHO said that three of the premature babies had been left behind in Emarati hospital in Rafah to receive further treatment. 

'The 28 babies have now safely arrived in Egypt. Three babies still remain at the Emarati Hospital and continue to receive treatment,' a WHO spokesperson said in an emailed response to Reuters.

Asked about the babies' condition, he said: 'All babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing health care.'

The plight of the babies, along with the Israeli claims of Hamas tunnels under Al Shifa Hospital, have become potent symbols in the devastating war between Israel and Hamas. 

During their time at Al Shifa, where power was cut and supplies ran out while Israeli forces battled Hamas terrorists outside, the babies were wrapped in green fabric roughly taped around them for warmth while others wore only nappies. 

Exhausted doctors told how they did not know how long the babies would survive. But finally, on Sunday, there was hope for the premature babies who survived the dire conditions as they were transferred to a hospital in southern Rafah. 

They had dehydration, hypothermia and sepsis in some cases, said Mohamed Zaqout, director of Gaza hospitals. Four other babies died in the two days before the evacuation, he said.

Now, the babies are being transferred to Egypt. But medical source said not all the infants would be able to be treated at El-Arish hospital in Egypt, 28 miles west of the Gaza Strip. 

'There are not enough incubators at El-Arish hospital, and some babies will have to be transferred to Ismailia or Cairo,' the source said. 

None of the babies had been accompanied by family members during the initial evacuation, the WHO said, as the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza was unable to locate them. 

Over 250 patients with severely infected wounds and other urgent conditions remain in Al Shifa hospital, which could no longer provide most treatment after it ran out of water, medical supplies and fuel for emergency generators amid a territory-wide blackout.

The plight of Gaza's hospitals is at the focus of a battle of narratives over the war's brutal toll on Palestinian civilians, thousands of whom have been killed or buried in rubble since the six-week-old war was sparked by Hamas' rampage into southern Israel on October 7. 

Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields, while critics say Israel's siege and relentless aerial bombardment amounts to collective punishment of the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians.

In northern Gaza, fighting erupted around another hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks, as Israeli forces focus on clearing medical facilities that they say Hamas terrorists use for cover.

A shell struck the second floor of the Indonesian Hospital today, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more, as Israeli tanks surrounded the medical facility, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health ministry. 

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reports that artillery fire had hit the hospital, which, like many other health facilities in embattled Gaza, has ceased operations. Instead, the hospital has become a shelter for 2,600 people including 600 patients.

Marwan Abdallah, the medical worker at the Indonesian Hospital, said Israeli tanks were operating less than 200 metres from the hospital, and that Israeli snipers could be seen on the roofs of nearby buildings. As he spoke over the phone, the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background. 

'You can see them moving around and firing,' he said. 'Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire.' 

Abdallah said the hospital had received dozens of dead and wounded in airstrikes and shelling overnight. He said medical staff and displaced people fear Israel will besiege the hospital and force its evacuation.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who is now based in southern Gaza, said Israeli forces struck the hospital, killing at least 12 people. It was not possible to independently confirm the report. He said some 600 patients, 200 healthcare workers and 2,000 displaced people were sheltering there. 

At the other end of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli air strikes on houses in the town of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, health officials said. 

The Israeli military issued a statement with video of airstrikes and troops going house-to-house, saying it killed three Hamas company commanders and a squad of Palestinian fighters, without giving specific locations.

Meanwhile, Israel's army said it had strong evidence supporting its claims that Hamas maintained a sprawling command post inside and under Al Shifa hospital, which includes several buildings, garages and a plaza.

The military released a video showing what it said was a tunnel discovered at the hospital, 55-metre (60-yard) long and about 10 meters (33 feet) below ground. It said the tunnel included a staircase and a firing hole that could be used by gunmen, and ended at a blast-proof door that troops have not yet opened. 

MailOnline couldn't independently verify Israel's findings, which included security camera video showing what the military said were two foreign hostages, one Thai and one Nepalese, who were captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack and taken to the hospital.

The army also said an investigation had determined that Israeli army Cpl. Noa Marciano, another captive whose body was recovered in Gaza, had been injured in an Israeli strike on Nov. 9 that killed her captor, but was then killed by a Hamas terrorist in Al Shifa.

Hamas and hospital staff have denied the allegations of a command post under Al Shifa. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan dismissed the latest announcement, saying 'the Israelis said there was a command and control centre, which means that the matter is greater than just a tunnel.'

Israel has repeatedly ordered Palestinians to leave northern Gaza and seek refuge in the south, which has also been under aerial bombardment since the start of the war. Some 1.7 million people, nearly three quarters of Gaza's population, have been displaced, with 900,000 packing into crowded U.N.-run shelters, according to the U.N.

Doctors Without Borders, an international aid group, said 70 people were killed and at least 52 wounded, including children, in strikes in the southern town of Khan Younis on Saturday. It said it was performing 10 burn surgeries a day at the town's overwhelmed Nasser Hospital, where hundreds of people who need such surgeries must wait for care.

More than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried in rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of terrorists.

About 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mainly civilians during the October 7 attack, in which Hamas dragged some 240 captives back into Gaza. The military says 65 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza ground operations.