Portugal Colonial - Premature babies moved from Gaza hospital as Israel steps up fight with Hamas

The evacuation came as Israel said it was stepping up operations against Hamas militants and mediator Qatar said only "minor" obstacles remained to getting agreement on the release of hostages.

Sirens blared across Jerusalem to warn of rocket fire from Gaza, sending civilians scurrying for cover as loud blasts from intercepted missiles pierced the air.

In Gaza, a lack of fuel to power incubators has previously led to the deaths of other vulnerable newborns at Al-Shifa hospital, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.

In Gaza, the Hamas government says 12,300 have been killed in Israel's relentless aerial bombardment and ground operations in retaliation for the worst-ever onslaught against the country.

Most of the casualties on both sides are civilians.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 31 "very sick" babies were moved in a joint operation with staff from the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS), which used six ambulances in the transfer.

The babies were taken to the Al-Helal Emirati maternity hospital, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "They are receiving urgent care in the neonatal intensive care unit," he added.

An AFP photographer saw the tiny infants at the hospital, some three or four to a cot, being bottle-fed by nurses and tended to by doctors in surgical scrubs.

"Further missions are being planned to urgently transport remaining patients and staff out of Al-Shifa Hospital, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict," said Tedros.

Alongside the babies, six health workers and 10 staff family members were also moved, he added.

- Hospitals stretched -

Israel said Saturday its military was "expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods... of the Gaza Strip" where the United Nations says some 1.6 million people have been internally displaced by weeks of fighting.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed Saturday in fighting in northern Gaza, the military said, raising the number of troop deaths to 62 since the war began.

The narrow coastal territory, under a crippling blockade since Hamas took power in 2007, has been under Israeli siege since the war erupted, leaving food, water, medicine and fuel in short supply.

The fighting has rendered more than half of Gaza's 36 hospitals non-functioning by shortages, combat or damage, the UN has said.

On Saturday, hundreds fled Al-Shifa Hospital on foot as loud explosions were heard around the complex. Columns of sick and injured were seen leaving with displaced people, doctors and nurses.

At least 15 bodies, some in advanced stages of decomposition, were strewn along the route, an AFP journalist said.

Israel has told Palestinians to move south for their safety, but deadly strikes continued there too.

At least 26 people were killed in a strike that hit a residential building on Saturday, according to the director of the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.

- 'Extreme suffering' -

Israeli troops raided Al-Shifa Hospital earlier this week on suspicion that it was being used as a Hamas base.

Israel has been under pressure to prove its allegations that a Hamas command centres is concealed beneath the hospital, a charge the militants deny.

"We already discovered evidence. We're going to show more evidence today of tunnels," Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Herzog, told ABC News.

Conditions at Al-Shifa are dire, according to the WHO, with a mass grave outside and nearly 300 patients and 25 health workers inside.

But it warned that nearby facilities were already overstretched and urged an immediate ceasefire given the "extreme suffering of the people of Gaza".

Al-Shifa head of surgery Marwan Abu Sada told AFP that Israeli troops were still in the hospital and it was surrounded by tanks.

"I heard at least two explosions since this morning," he said.

Doctors said Israeli troops were going from building to building and regularly detonated explosives on the ground floors and hospital basements searching for Hamas tunnels.

A Hamas health official said more than 80 people were killed on Saturday in twin strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, the territory's largest, including on a UN school sheltering displaced people.

The Israeli army said only that "an incident in the Jabalia region" was under review without elaborating.

"The horrendous events of the past 48 hours in Gaza beggar belief," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement, referring to actions "which fly in the face of the basic protections civilians must be afforded under international law."

- Fuel shipments -

With just a trickle of aid allowed in from Egypt, Israel permitted a first consignment of fuel to enter Gaza late Friday under US pressure, allowing telecommunications to resume after a two-day blackout.

Some 120,000 litres (31,700 gallons) of fuel arrived on Saturday, according to the UN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government had vowed to keep aid out of Hamas's hands, said the fuel would power basic necessities like water pumps and sewage systems to prevent disease outbreak.

"The humanitarian assistance is also vital to ensure continued international support," he told a news conference.

A US official has said more fuel deliveries and a "significant pause" in fighting would come "when hostages are released".

The White House denied a Washington Post report of a tentative agreement.

But Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Sunday a deal to free hostages hinges on "very minor" practical issues, without elaborating.

US deputy national security advisor Jon Finer told NBC they were "closer than we have been in quite some time" to securing a deal.

But he added on CBS: "The mantra that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed really does apply."

Relatives of some of the hostages on Saturday marched to Netanyahu's Jerusalem office, demanding action to free them.

The bodies of two female hostages were recovered in Gaza this week, the Israeli military said, while four abductees have so far been released by Hamas and a fifth rescued by troops.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 200 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

The PRCS on Sunday reported two deaths in overnight army raids in Jenin and the Bethlehem area.

burs-phz/it

A.F.Rosado--PC