UNICEF official says babies in Gaza forced to share oxygen masks, Israel challenges UN data

Geneva: Israel has repeatedly denied permission to transfer incubators from an evacuated hospital in North Gaza, a UN children's agency official said on Tuesday, adding to strain on overcrowded hospitals further south where newborn babies are now sharing oxygen masks.

Israel disputed the assertion and said it was allowing the transfer of medical equipment from the north of the enclave to its south.

Two years of war between Israel and Hamas has increased stress and malnourishment among pregnant mothers, leading to a rise in premature and underweight babies who the World Health Organization says now account for a fifth of all Gaza newborns.

Over the past month an Israeli assault on Gaza City in northern Gaza has shut hospitals in that area, worsening overcrowding in hospitals that remain open in the south.

James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, described mothers and babies lining the corridor floors of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, and said that premature babies were being forced to share oxygen masks and beds. Meanwhile, vital equipment is stranded in hospitals that have been shut in the north.

"We've been trying to recover incubators from a hospital that was evacuated in the north, and we've had four missions denied simply to get those incubators," he told Reuters by video link from Gaza, referring to supplies now stuck at the damaged Al-Rantissi Children's Hospital in Gaza City.

At a hospital Elder visited in the south, meanwhile, "in one of the paediatric rooms, there were three babies and three mums on a single bed, one source of oxygen, and the mothers would rotate the oxygen 20 minutes to each child," he said. "This is the level of desperation mums have now got to."

COGAT challenges UN data

COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, said the UN's data was wrong and that hundreds of coordination requests for humanitarian convoys, including the transfer of food, medical equipment, fuel and teams were being approved.

"The transfer of medical equipment from hospitals in the north to those in the south is being facilitated in accordance with hospital requests," COGAT said.

The UN humanitarian office said on Tuesday that Israel had either denied or impeded 45 per cent of its 8,000 requested humanitarian missions within Gaza since October 7, 2023.

UNICEF has called for the evacuation of ill and premature babies remaining in northern Gaza hospitals. The WHO transferred three of them last week to a hospital further south, but said one died before the mission. Only 14 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are currently even partially functional, the WHO says.