By Athena Papakosta

Health and trapped workers, patients and displaced persons inside Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, are rejecting claims by Israel that it provided aid for infants and others to escape yesterday, Sunday.

They explain that fighting is raging outside Al Shifa which has been halted since last Saturday with patients in need of mechanical support and babies in incubators at risk by the minute. Already, it has been known by the director doctor of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that three infants who were born prematurely have now died.

But according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to the American network CNN, about 100 people have evacuated Al Shifa after Israel has established safe corridors around it.

However, the Gaza Ministry of Health denies these claims, emphasizing that people are afraid to leave the hospital, where snipers have also been deployed, who do not hesitate to open fire on movements inside the hospital.

At the same time, the Israeli armed forces said they were willing to help transport the babies while staying in touch with hospital staff, with the British NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians, which had supported the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit for years, explaining that this it is not possible and the only solution is to stop the hostilities in the perimeter of Al Shifa. “Ambulances cannot reach the hospital while no one else can pick up the newborns,” he notes and adds that “the only safe option is for Israel to stop the attack now and give the green light for fuel to reach the hospital.” .

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the American NBC network about the issue of fuel, stressing that Israel has provided fuel to Al Shifa but Hamas has not allowed its personnel to receive it. He even emphasized that “we offered to give them enough fuel to run the hospital, to run the incubators and so on, because we have absolutely no battle with the patients or the civilians.” For its part, the hospital reported that the offered amount of 300 liters of fuel would only last for half an hour.

A little later, the Israeli prime minister also gave an interview to the American CNN network where he emphasized that about 100 people have evacuated Al Shifa and that Israel has created safe corridors around it, with the Gaza Ministry of Health denying his claims, stressing that the world he is afraid to leave the hospital because of the prevailing conditions.

For its part, Israel’s closest ally, the United States of America, emphasizes that it does not want to see armed conflicts in hospitals that endanger civilian lives, with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan noting that the Washington “is in active consultation with the Israeli armed forces on this.”

Tragic conditions also prevail in the second largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, Al Quds Hospital, which according to the Palestinian Red Crescent remains out of service while, according to the director of the Gaza Strip’s medical institutions, Mohammed Zakut, the contact with the Radisi pediatric hospital, the only one for children with cancer, “has disappeared”.

Late on Sunday night, according to Reuters, Hamas announced that it was suspending negotiations for the release of the hostages while, a little earlier, the Israeli prime minister left open the possibility of an agreement.

The situation in the Palestinian enclave remains dire.

Gaza death toll revised upwards. Now the dead are at least 11,180 of which 4,609 are children and 3,100 are women. At the same time, the Israeli military cordon is tightening dangerously as Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza City with fighting in full swing and Israel declaring its determination to continue the war against Hamas, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire. .