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Palestine health chief says 39 babies are at risk of death in Gaza hospital amid blackout

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, medical institutions cannot provide oxygen to newborns

CAIRO, November 11. /TASS/. At least 39 babies are at risk of dying in the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the Gaza Strip amid a power cutoff, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said.

"As many as 39 newborn babies, who are in intensive care, may die at any moment, and one of them already died this morning. Without emergency fuel supplies to the hospital, the intensive care department can operate only until tonight, while a lack of oxygen would mean death for the other [children in intensive care], too," Al Hadath television quoted Kaila as saying.

According to al-Kaila, of the 35 hospitals available in Gaza, 20 have shut down, with lots of patients "at risk of slowly dying amid a lack of necessary medicines."

Earlier, the Gaza health ministry said that operations at the hospital complex, the largest in the Palestinian enclave, were suspended as the facility ran out of fuel.