Soldiers were shown ferrying jerry cans under the cover of darkness to the doors of the facility whose supplies ran dry at the weekend. The emergency drop-off had been coordinated in advance with medics.
But yesterday the Israel Defence Forces said it had evidence “Hamas officials prevented the hospital from receiving the [consignment]”.
The terror group denied the claim and said the fuel drop, below, was “not enough to operate hospital generators for more than 30 minutes”.
The lives of around 37 newborn babies hinge on power being restored to Al-Shifa, the territory’s largest hospital where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter.
One image shows the tiny infants being kept in a cot wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate bid to keep them warm and alive, said hospital director Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya.
In another picture swaddled babies are lined up on a bed having been taken out of their incubators after oxygen supplies ran out.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed six premature babies and nine patients have died since power outages struck the hospital several days ago.
Israeli forces are working on a plan to rescue the babies as the situation deteriorates.
But Dr Abu Salmiya said yesterday: “They are now exposed, because we have taken them out of the incubators. We wrap them in foil and put hot water next to them so that we can warm them.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, described Dr Abu Salmiya’s account as “dire and perilous”.
It is now feared more than half the hospitals in the Gaza Strip have stopped working because fuel supplies have run dry.
The IDF has been operating in the centre of Gaza – where it says Hamas’s military high command operates – for the past fortnight.
Air strikes across the territory have killed more than 11,000 people, according to health ministry officials, while a fuel blockade enforced after the October 7 massacre and kidnappings has sparked a deepening humanitarian catastrophe as critical infrastructure that relies on electricity stops working.
Dr Abu Salmiya said “whoever needs surgery dies – and we cannot do anything”.
He added: “The operating rooms are completely out of service and now the wounded come to us and we cannot give them anything other than first aid.” On Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society announced Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City is out of service. And yesterday it had to turn around an evacuation convoy after fighting nearby.
The Red Crescent dispatched a convoy to the facility, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross, but was “forced to return due to the dangerous conditions, because of continuous shelling and shooting”. It said staff and patients are trapped without food, water or power.
The IDF claimed it had “eliminated” a Hamas death squad that opened fire at soldiers from the hospital entrance. A spokesman said: “Rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire were directed at soldiers from the direction of the Al-Quds Hospital.”
An IDF tank was damaged in the exchange and some Hamas fighters were able to get back inside the hospital. The spokesman added: “Approximately 21 terrorists were killed and there were no casualties to our forces.
“During the exchange, civilians were seen leaving and other terrorists who came out of adjacent buildings hid among them and joined the attempted attack. After the terrorists fired RPGs, they returned to hide in the hospital.” Israeli forces deny targeting medical facilities. It has long claimed that Hamas terrorists have command bases beneath hospitals and are embedded within communities.
As international calls for a ceasefire continued to mount, a humanitarian corridor was opened between 9am and 4pm local time yesterday so civilians in northern Gaza could flee south. There was also a tactical military pause between 10am and 2pm in southern border city Rafah.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists his forces will continue the offensive until all of the 240 hostages are released.
