News- Middle East: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for the immediate evacuation of more than two dozen ill or premature babies trapped in Gaza City hospitals amid Israel’s intensified assault on the area.

“It is time to move them because Gaza City again has become a combat zone, but moving them where? There is no safe place for them to go,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said on Monday.

Pires further explained that the evacuation of the babies, many of them newborns, would require placing them on makeshift carts, wrapped in blankets, and connected to portable oxygen supplies and drips. Even then, he warned, the infants would face the risk of infection, exposure to fluctuating temperatures, or the possibility that critical medical supplies could run out during the transfer.

“Moving them seems like the best option we have now...but at the same time, it’s a very risky one.”

In Gaza City, there are more babies than incubators, and they are being shared, he said, adding that Israel has denied requests to import more. The UN official stated that he saw four babies in one incubator last month.

The Israeli army has targeted the Al Helo Hospital in Gaza City, where at least 12 babies are in incubators. Medics said the site was shelled. A video footage by media outlets showed hospital rooms and beds there strewn with debris.

"Doctors and patients inside the hospital are living in a state of terror and severe fear, which has been worsened by the occupation’s deliberate cut off of the hospital’s internet network to isolate it from the outside world and suspend medical services for civilians," Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Health Ministry Media Office, told Anadolu on Sunday.

The UNICEF appeal comes as Israel has intensified its offensive on Gaza City, the largest urban center in the besieged territory.

It was not immediately clear which hospitals could take the babies, with many already crippled by fuel shortages, damaged infrastructure, and overcrowding.

The health sector in Gaza has been pushed to the brink under Israeli bombardment and repeated displacement orders.

Aid workers and health experts have been reporting a rise in preventable diseases in the besieged territory amid the humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the coastal enclave.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory (OHCHR) said on Sunday that it had recorded 17 Israeli attacks “on or near health facilities in Gaza City,” since September 16.

The organization said al-Quds Hospital, al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, and the Medical Relief Health Centre, all in Gaza City, were directly struck. Attacks also took place in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital and al-Ahli Hospital.

“Such attacks are leaving sick and injured civilians with nowhere to turn to for life-saving care, as escalating attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are leading to countless casualties,” OHCHR said. “Immediate protection and access to healthcare and humanitarian assistance are imperative,” the statement added.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as of September 25, only seven out of 13 hospitals in Gaza City remained operational, and even those were functioning “only barely.”

The latest warning by UNICEF comes as Israel launched a massive ground assault on Gaza City, flattening whole districts and ordering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee to the south of the besieged strip.

On Sunday, the Israeli regime carried out fresh airstrikes across Gaza, killing at least 90 Palestinians.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, ongoing since October 2023, has so far killed nearly 66,005 Palestinians and left more than 167,000 injured.

Israel's killing spree in Gaza continues as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets US President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss a ceasefire.

Source: Press TV