Struggle for Survival: Newborn Crisis in Gaza

Israel has repeatedly blocked attempts to relocate incubators from a shutdown hospital in North Gaza, according to a U.N. children's agency official, adding further pressure on already overburdened medical institutions in the south where newborns must share oxygen masks.

Due to extensive warfare between Israel and Hamas over the past two years, increasing numbers of pregnant women are malnourished, leading to a rise in premature and low-weight infants comprising 20% of newborns in Gaza, as noted by the World Health Organization. Recent Israeli military activity in northern Gaza has closed hospitals in the region, intensifying patient load in southern hospitals that remain operational.

James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson, illustrated the dire conditions at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, where mothers and infants are found along corridor floors as the struggle for medical care intensifies. The vital incubators remain trapped at the debilitated Al-Rantissi Children's Hospital in Gaza City, as he explained from a video link in Gaza. Despite efforts to retrieve these incubators, Israeli authorities have denied multiple mission attempts.

(With inputs from agencies.)