Tel Aviv [Israel], November 15: Palestinians trapped inside Gaza's biggest hospital were digging a mass grave to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement, and said no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators.
Israeli forces have surrounded Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which they say sits atop an underground headquarters of Hamas militants.
Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist group, denies fighters are present and says 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 other displaced civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. It says 40 patients have died in recent days, including three premature babies whose incubators were knocked out.
Five weeks after Israel swore to destroy Hamas in retaliation for a cross-border assault by militants, the fate of the encircled hospital has become a focus of international alarm, including from Israel's closest ally, the United States.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.
"We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC, but we have no other options the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose," he told Reuters.
"The men are digging right now as we speak."
Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept warm as best as possible, lined up eight to a bed.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation