Tiny babies, drowned by their nappies which are far too big, lie in rows in an ordinary hospital bed lined with aluminium foil. The rib cages of nearly all of the premature newborns stick out in lines through their skin. The foil is a makeshift solution to try to keep in warmth, to stop the babies – who weigh just a few pounds each and should be in incubators – dying of cold.
So far, three of 39 babies in al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, have died as fuel has run out and the incubators have switched off, according to Palestinian medics. A total of 32 patients have died since al-Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
