DUBAI, November 19. /TASS/. At least 31 newborns have been evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Zakut, Gaza hospitals director general, said on Sunday.

He told the Al Arabiya television channel that these are prematurely born babies.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has confirmed this fact. It wrote on its X account (formerly known as Twitter) that emergency brigades of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had evacuated 31 prematurely born infants from Al-Shifa Hospital. They were taken to the south of the Gaza Strip to be further evacuated to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The WHO said earlier on Sunday that more than 300 people, including 32 newborns in critical condition, were still in Al-Shifa Hospital. According to the WHO, most of the hospital’s patients have various limb injuries. Twenty-nine patients cannot move unaided. Many patients have infected wounds due to the lack on antibiotics and the horrible sanitary situation in the hospital. The organization also said that it and its partners are working out a plan for the immediate evacuation of the patients, medical personnel and their families.

Israeli forces began storming Al-Shifa Hospital on November 15. Israel claims that the hospital houses Hamas’ main command center. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also say that there are several underground facilities under the hospital where some 200 radicals are hiding and the hostages kidnapped in the October 7 attack are being kept. According to the IDF, an entrance to a tunnel and a car with weapons have been found while searching the hospital area.