2023-11-20 23:15:24
by Greta Privitera
The “little ones of Shifa” were evacuated two days ago, safely crossing the Rafah crossing in functioning incubators. A woman explains that some of the newborns left without any relatives and says that two did not make it. «It was heartbreaking. My son is one of the serious cases”
In these 45 days of war, of friends who died under the bombs, of sleepless nights, of houses turned into rubble, of colleagues who exploded while driving the ambulance, yesterday was the only moment in which Bashar Murad, head of the Palestinian Red Crescent of the Strip, cried with joy. «When the last child was loaded onto the vehicle to go to Egypt, I breathed a sigh of relief. I haven’t felt like this for weeks,” he tells the Corriere.
Murad and his colleagues coordinated the evacuation operations of premature babies born at Al Shifa hospital, the largest in the Strip which has become one of the hot fronts of this war. «It was complicated. The hospital is completely in the hands of the Israeli army which, barricaded, tries and hopes to flush out the Hamas militiamen. Inside there are jeeps and tanks, it is very impressive to see how a place of treatment has become a battlefield”, continues the doctor.
The “children of Shifa” – as Murad calls them – were evacuated two days ago, yesterday they were saved, overtaking, safe, in working incubators, the Rafah crossing. For a week we have been following with apprehension the fate of the newborns, who, with their tiny bodies, have become one of the symbols of the horror of Gaza. Some died as the hospital ran out of fuel and was invaded by the IDF, which accuses Hamas of building tunnels under the facility and using it as its base.
Few doctors believed that the “children of Shifa” would make it out of the hospital’s infernal corridors alive. «It wasn’t easy», says Murad, «they were bombing and fighting all around while we evacuated. Twenty-eight out of 31 children went to Egypt: 16 to al-Arish hospital, Sinai. The other twelve are considered difficult cases and were transported by helicopter to Cairo. Three children remained in southern Gaza to continue treatment. In this last week they have undergone strong deteriorations.”
But it is the mothers’ testimonies that bring back the idea of the tragedy. A woman, who had just arrived in Egypt, told the Masry Alyom newspaper: «Everything was terrible. For days we feared for my son’s death, as well as for that of the others who are no longer here.” The woman explains that some of the newborns left without any relatives and she says that two did not make it. «It was heartbreaking. My son is one of the serious cases and I hope that the treatment in Egypt will save him. I don’t have anyone else in my family. All dead. My husband and my other two children were killed in a house bombing. The two of us are safe because we were already in hospital.”
Then there is Lubna, another mother, who told Reuters that she had given birth seven days before the war. A 27-week premature birth: «I was forced to leave my daughter in the hospital, in the incubator. On October 7th I was supposed to go and see her, they had put her on a ventilator, but on the third day they asked us to evacuate, my family and I went south and our house was bombed. The little girl remained in Al Shifa.” Lubna explains that when she learned of the possibility of going to Egypt, she began walking from Deir el Balah towards the border: «There were no means of communication, not even donkeys, we were threatened by bombs, and like us the innocent children.”
Murad is keen to share one last number: 5,600 Palestinian children were killed in the Israeli bombings in Gaza and 2,500 are missing under the rubble: «The “children of Shifa” are safe for now. We, after everything we have seen, if we survive, will be devastated forever.”
(Farid Adly collaborated)
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November 20, 2023 (changed November 20, 2023 | 10.15pm)
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