Cairo, Egypt | Xinhua | Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday instructed the country’s medical sector to receive Palestinian newborns from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip that suspended its operation on Nov. 11 after it ran out of fuel.
To implement the directives of the Egyptian president, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Egypt’s minister of Health and Population, said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday that ambulances and incubators were ready at the Rafah crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, to receive the 35 premature babies, according to a statement released by the cabinet on its facebook page.
Israeli forces raided the medical complex on Wednesday and claimed to have found a command center and weapons and military gear belonging to Hamas. Hamas denied the accusation.
Israel launched a massive attack on Gaza in retaliation for the surprise strike led by Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The ongoing conflict, raging into the second month, has killed more than 11,500 Palestinians and wounded some 29,000 others in the coastal enclave, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. ■