Since the beginning of the genocide, on October 2023, Gaza's hospitals, including Al-Nasr and Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital Complex, struggle to operate under conditions of constant shelling, shortages of electricity, fuel, and medical supplies. International organizations like UNICEF or Doctors Without Borders warn of a humanitarian disaster, particularly for children and critical care patients in northern Gaza hospitals. The episode of the siege, the shelling, the evacuation and invasion of the Al-Nasser complex (10 to 27 November 2023) led to the death and abandonment of infants in intensive care for three weeks before being found dead. Their bodies were discovered in a decomposing state in the Al-Nasr Hospital nursery, in what may amount to a horrifying execution and a crime against humanity.

Zoom in to see the map showing the three hospitals in Gaza that formed a complete medical complex

Chronology of Events:

Before November 10, 2023:

The targeting of Al-Nasr Hospital or rather Al-Nasr Medical Complex started when the Israeli bombs caused a fire in the garden of the Eyes Hospital on 1 November.

According to “@ma_loolla" (certainly a member of the medical staff but her X account is now suppressed) the IDF prevented access to drinking water since November 3.

On November 4, the IDF ordered Dr. Mustafa Alkahlout, director of Al-Nasr Hospital, to evacuate, warning of an imminent strike. Shortly after, the hospital gate was bombed, killing at least two people, injuring others, and destroying the water station. Dr. Alkahlout appealed to the media for international protection against the threats and evacuation orders. On the same day, “@ma_loolla” wrote:

"Once again, Al-Nasr Hospital now accommodates tens of thousands of displaced individuals, along with medical staff and their families. Everyone has lost their homes, including "children" patients from Al-Dura hospital who were evacuated due to phosphorus bombing and Al-Rantisi hospital bombardment that turned its patients into casualties. The hospital "Al-Nasr" houses a neonatal care unit with babies on artificial respiration and cases in intensive care. It is the last remaining children's hospital in Gaza.”

On November 5, the Israeli army shelled Al-Nasr Hospital.

Hours later, on November 6, they shelled the Al-Nasr Medical Complex, including El-Rantisi Cancer Hospital, the Eyes Hospital, and Gaza's only psychiatric hospital, killing six children and several displaced people.

On November 9, Al-Nasr Hospital was shelled twice more, severely damaging the entrance and cutting power to the ICU and neonatal unit. The oxygen supply was disrupted, leading to the death of Yahia Shabat, a child with SMA who relied on a respirator. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

One of the examination rooms in Nasr Hospital and you see the hole that shows you the street thanks to the Israeli shelling on November 9,2023.

Other footages :1, 2

November 10, 2023:

The hospital comes under heavy fire of Israeli Military, with shelling reported at the gate and within departments. Israeli tanks encircle the area. Doctors and staff at Al-Nasr evacuate under dangerous conditions, leaving behind five critically ill infants in the pediatric ICU due to the inability to safely transport them without life-support equipment. A nurse sheltering in the hospital reports sniper fire preventing movement and pleads for help through international organizations.

The Orient XXI and the BBC articles describe an exchange between an officer from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) The COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories), the Israeli organization that coordinates the activities of the Israeli military and interactions with Palestinian authorities and civilians in the occupied territories, and a medical official from Al-Rantisi Hospital regarding the evacuation of two hospitals, Al-Nasr and Al-Rantisi, located about 500 meters apart. In this case, the role of COGAT was to coordinate the evacuation of Al-Nasr hospital, but the promises of support were not fulfilled.

Dr. Al-Kahlout, the director of the pediatric hospitals Al-Nasr and Al-Rantisi Hospital informed an agent from Israel's Cogat that ambulances could not access the hospital due to intense fighting and that some patients, particularly babies in intensive care, could not be moved without specific medical equipment.

A COGAT official assured him they were aware of the situation and would act accordingly, yet the babies were left without assistance and that ambulances would be sent to evacuate the patients, including the babies in intensive care. The COGAT officer assured the hospital official that ambulances would arrive and everything would be fine.

“I will coordinate with the primary rescue center. Don’t worry, I am close to the army, everything will be fine.” When asked, “Will ambulances take the patients and medical staff?”, the officer replied: “No problem.”

Despite these promises, the ambulances never arrived. The medical staff, in a state of panic, attempted to evacuate the hospital on foot, holding white flags to signal their intention to flee. However, during this evacuation, they were targeted by the Israeli military, as shown in video footage from November 10.

Mid-November 2023 : The hospital is left nonfunctional following the evacuation, despites Israeli assurance, no follow-up evacuation of the infants occurs.

27 November 2023: Discovery of the abandoned Infants by the journalist Mohammed Baalousha from Al-Mashhad TV who gained access to Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital. He discovered the decomposing bodies of five infants still connected to medical devices in the pediatric ICU. The footage of the infants circulates widely on social media, shocking the international community.

December 2023: Reactions and Investigations NBC News obtains and verifies raw footage, confirming the advanced decomposition of the infants and the dire conditions in the ICU.

Forensic Analysis: Experts verify the bodies' state aligns with the timeline of abandonment after the evacuation.

On January 9, Palestinian journalists and photographers revisited Al-Nasr Hospital only to discover it completely damaged. The war crime or crimes' evidence and scene had to be erased.

Euro-med Human Rigth Monitor statement

"Euro-Med Monitor emphasized that there was nothing that could have been done to save their lives during the evacuation, as patients and staff were forced to leave against their will, and transferring the vulnerable newborns to another accredited medical facility would have had to been done by the Israeli army—something that never happened. Instead, the infants were abandoned on the machines, and left to die in silence. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor demanded that the Israeli army be held accountable for the incident and that the Red Cross should also be held responsible for suspicions of negligence in responding to calls to save the lives of children and patients in Gaza."

The ICR crews were accused to have abandonned the infants, they released a statement on November 30.

Here is the translation of the Arabic version (more precise than the English one)

"International Committee @ICRC_ar Important clarification. The circulating footage of newborn babies dying is an unspeakable tragedy and an unacceptable reality in which civilians – including newborns and children – pay a heavy price in the conflict. The security situation in the northern Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly difficult. The ICRC has received numerous requests to evacuate hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, but the difficult security situation has prevented us from participating in any of these evacuations, and our teams have shown no commitment to participate. The ICRC reiterates its public emphasis on the need to protect hospitals in times of armed conflict. ICRC"

Names of the martyrs :

• Jawaher Al-Kafarna

• Mazen Al-Taweel

• Salem Abu Qeinas

• Yahia Shabbat

• Unnamed : the son of Ibrahim Al-Bahtiti.

• A woman and her daughter (following the testimony of a female doctor on X, archived on "genocide in Gaza" )

There are certainly more victims among the children, even if their remains were not found in the hospital : according to the testimony of several hospital officials, they were forced to leave two children in a care unit, two in foster care, and a fifth child with Edwards’ syndrome (trisomy 18) with an orphan girl whose entire family was killed.

IDF statement and denial:

Even if there is a recorded telephone conversation released by IDF about the evacuation, and the insurance of coordination with the Red Cross and the Israeli army as it was done for the evacuation of another hospitals, COGAT spokeswoman Shani Sasson informed The Post that Israeli forces did not instruct al-Nasr's staff to evacuate or conduct operations within the facility. "For an army that opens incubators to find weapons in it and find tunnels in strange places, I highly doubt it". She refrained from responding to inquiries regarding whether COGAT or the Israeli military were informed about the babies or took any steps to provide assistance to them. During a live conversation on Twitter, IDF Spokeswoman Doron Spielman questioned if the whole thing was true : "There were no premature babies that decomposed because of the IDF; there were probably no babies that decomposed whatsoever," he stated.

Sources

Main source to go further Other sources : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8