Gaza doctors cram babies into 'single incubators'

Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign.

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Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyse hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war.

An Israeli military official said around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said.

"We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa’s director.

"Premature babies are now in a very critical condition."

The threat comes from “neither an airstrike nor a missile - but a siege choking the entry of fuel,” Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters.