Red Cross says footage filmed in Gaza City hospital ‘showing decomposing bodies of premature babies left to die in their beds’ represents an ‘unspeakable tragedy’ and begs Hamas and the IDF to let them operate with security in war torn city
- WARNING DISTRESSING FOOTAGE
- Five Palestinian children were allegedly left to die in Al-Nasr Hospital
- Staff said they were forcibly made to leave the hospital by IDF soldiers
- The Red Cross said the video represents ‘an unspeakable tragedy’
The Red Cross says that footage that allegedly shows the bodies of five Palestinian children left to die in the Al-Nasr Hospital in Gaza represents an ‘unspeakable tragedy.’
Sickening, but heavily censored, footage first shared by Arabic-language news channel Al Mashhad, shows five bed filled with what are allegedly the bodies of infant children.
Hospital equipment, including health monitoring devices, appear to be long out of service, while the room itself appears to be in a state of abandonment.
MailOnline has not yet been able to independently verify the footage, though the Switzerland-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said it was able to ‘confirm that it documented the discovery of five infants dead and in a state of decomposition’ in a neonatal ward of the Al-Nasr Hospital.
A Red Cross spokesperson backed up Euro-Med’s statement, telling MailOnline: ‘Footage circulating of deceased newborn babies represents an unspeakable tragedy, an unacceptable reality of how civilians – including babies and children – pay the price in conflict.
‘Teams are deeply concerned about the safety of patients in the north. The ICRC is fully committed to provide support to evacuate the sick and wounded, and call for the necessary conditions in place to do that.
Sickening, but heavily censored, footage first shared by Arabic-language news channel Al Mashhad, shows five bed filled with what are allegedly the bodies of infant children
Hospital equipment, including health monitoring devices, appear to be long out of service, while the room itself appears to be in a state of abandonment.
MailOnline has not yet been able to independently verify the footage
‘Only the parties to the conflict can provide this. As reiterated by the ICRC publicly, hospitals must be protected during times of armed conflict.’
The director of Al-Nasr hospital, Dr. Mustafa Al-Kahlot, previously told CNN that he had called on several international organisations, including the Red Cross, for help, but received no reply.
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Dr. Al-Kahlot said three weeks ago that the hospital was attacked twice by the IDF, and caused its facilities to be rendered useless, leading to the death of a child due to oxygen deprivation.
‘One attack targeted the hospital’s gate and the other was directed at the departments in the hospital,’ he said at the time.
‘No one could reach the hospital and ambulances on the road were also targeted,’ he added.
The Red Cross spokesperson seemingly confirmed Dr. Al-Kahlot’s claims, telling MailOnline: ‘The security situation in the north has been increasingly challenging.
‘The ICRC received several requests to evacuate hospitals in the north of Gaza, but due to this security situation, we were not involved in any operations of evacuations, nor did teams commit to doing so.
‘The ICRC has consistently stressed the need to secure access to operate in the north of Gaza.’
Euro-Med, meanwhile, has called on the global community to independently investigate why five Palestinian children were allegedly left to die in the Al-Nasr Hospital in Gaza after staff were forcibly evacuated by the IDF.
The human rights monitor, which is headed up by former UN special rapporteur Richard Falk, said that the babies were left to die three weeks ago after staff were made to leave the hospital by the IDF, which attacked the hospital and surrounded it with its tanks.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry backed up the claims, adding that the children were born ‘premature.’
The spokesperson claimed that Israeli soldiers had blocked access to the ward where the children were found until Tuesday night.
Video footage published by Arabic-language media appears to show at least two IDF tanks lying in wait in the area surrounding Al-Nasr.
The IDF said at the time that it had opened up evacuation corridors from Al-Nasr, as well as the nearby Al-Shifa and Al-Rantsi hospitals.
The BBC reported that both Al-Nasr and Al-Rantsi were evacuated ‘save for a handful of patients and staff’. MailOnline could not verify the status of the people left behind.
Video shared at the time shows people, including patients and staff, under gunfire waving white flags under orders from the IDF to show they were not combatants.
It is not clear where exactly the gunshots came from, or who fired them.
The IDF consistently accused Hamas of using hospitals across Gaza as hideouts since it began its retaliation against the terror group’s October 7 incursion, and used this as justification to wage war in the areas around major hospitals, including Al-Nasr.
The IDF consistently accused Hamas of using hospitals across Gaza as hideouts since it began its retaliation against the terror group’s October 7 incursion
The White House backed the claims up earlier this month, saying it had its own intelligence that it was using Al-Shifa (pictured) to run its military operations and store weapons.
The White House backed the claims up earlier this month, saying it had its own intelligence that it was using Al-Shifa to run its military operations and store weapons.
‘We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control mode’ and probably to store weapons, national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One at the time.
‘That is a war crime.’
‘To be clear, we do not support striking a hospital from the air. We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care they deserve,’ he said.
The bloodiest conflict between Israel and Hamas in decades has led to thousands of civilians dying.
Experts told the New York Times last week that the rate at which civilians in the Gaza Strop, most of whom have been women and children, have been killed is shocking
The bloodiest conflict between Israel and Hamas in decades has led to thousands of civilians dying
Hamas killed 1,200 people during its incursion on October 7, according to an Israeli count, while nearly 15,000 civilians have been killed in retaliatory strikes by the IDF in the nearly eight weeks that the conflict has gone on for.
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Experts told the New York Times last week that the rate at which civilians in the Gaza Strop, most of whom have been women and children, have been killed is shocking.
The Ministry of Health, which the UN has said is a reliable source of information, said that roughly 6,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
A 2022 UN report said that last year, less than 3,000 children were killed in total across all the world’s major conflict zones.
The UN’s chief António Guterres warned earlier this month: ‘Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children.
‘Hundreds of boys and girls are reportedly being killed or injured every day.
‘The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour.’
Two more hostages were released by Hamas today, following on from the one-day extension of the temporary ceasefire deal that has seen the longest break in the bloodiest conflict between the terror group and Israel in decades.
It’s not clear why the two women were freed before another eight were expected to be released tonight.
The bloodiest conflict between Israel and Hamas in decades has led to thousands of civilians dying
Hamas killed 1,200 people during its incursion on October 7, according to an Israeli count, while nearly 15,000 civilians have been killed in retaliatory strikes by the IDF in the nearly eight weeks that the conflict has gone on for
The Ministry of Health, which the UN has said is a reliable source of information, said that roughly 6,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 7
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Terrifying footage shows Mia Schem surrounded by a screaming mob and guarded by masked Hamas gunmen as she was walked from a car and handed over to Red Cross operatives this afternoon.
The French-Israeli hostage had been held captive for 54 days since October 7 when she was dragged away in to Gaza. In that time she was forced to film a propaganda video which showed the captive receiving treatment for injuries she sustained in her kidnapping.
But today she was finally released alongside 40-year-old Amit Soussana in Palestine Square in the centre of Gaza City in a very public hostage exchange. Many of the previous exchanges took place on empty highways.
Hamas tonight handed over twelve Israeli and four Thai hostages on the sixth and seemingly final day of the precarious and temporary ceasefire truce.
The ceasefire deal was today extended by one more day, and eight more hostages are expected to be released tonight.
Mia, flanked by gunmen and surrounded by hundreds of screaming men, looks petrified as she is put into a Red Cross vehicle
Mia had been paraded by Hamas terrorists in a chilling video in which she pleaded with Israeli officials to ‘get her out of Gaza’
Amit Soussana, 40, who was also taken hostage during the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, has now been released
READ MORE: Fresh blow for family of Kfir Bibas as Hamas offer to exchange three hostages’ bodies a day after claiming the baby, his brother and mother were killed in Israeli bombardment
The terms of the truce agreement pausing the fighting in the Gaza Strip say it can be extended beyond its initial four-day term as long as 10 hostages are released for each extra day, with three times as many Palestinians freed in return.
Despite the precarious and temporary ceasefire, the family of hostage Kfir Bibas face an agonising wait for confirmation that the 10-month-old, along with his four-year-old brother Ariel and his mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, was killed in captivity.
Hamas yesterday claimed that the trio were killed in an Israeli airstrike shortly before the initial truce was struck on Friday, without providing evidence.
The fresh claims came just days after it was suggested Kfir and his family members had been handed to another militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
‘Our family has learned of Hamas’ latest claims,’ the Bibas family said, who are waiting for the Israeli military to either confirm or deny Hamas’s claim.
‘We are waiting for the information to be confirmed and hopefully refuted by military officials,’ the statement said.
‘We thank the people of Israel for their warm support, but kindly request privacy during this difficult time.’
MailOnline has contacted Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor for comment.
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