Sirens echoing; Flags at half-mast; Hospital is no longer functional PHOTO

Sirens echoing; Flags at half-mast; Hospital is no longer functional PHOTO

United Nations flags were flown at half-mast today at headquarters in Asia and Africa in mourning for the world organization's staff killed in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Shifa Hospital: Prematurely born babies wraped in foils to keep them warm

We wrap premature babies in Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza City, in plastic wrap and place them next to warm water in a desperate attempt to keep them alive, warned hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya.

Abu Salmiya told Al Arabiya television that the babies were taken out of the incubators because they were not working, after the oxygen and fuel supplies ran out, and they were wrapped in foil to keep them warm. Al-Shifa Hospital staff are struggling to keep the newborns alive after oxygen supplies ran out and the babies were moved from the incubators in the neonatal unit to another part of the hospital.

Photos show several newborn babies being taken out of the incubator and placed in one bed, CNN reported.

More than 800 foreigners crossed from the Gaza Strip into Egypt

More than 800 foreign nationals crossed from Gaza into Egypt via the Rafah crossing, an Egyptian border control official told CNN.

This is the largest number of people who crossed the crossing in one day since the evacuations from Gaza began.

It is also the first evacuation of foreigners since Thursday, when, as stated by the Egyptian border control, more than 300 people left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.

Hamas government: Six babies and nine patients died in Gaza hospital

The Palestinian government led by the Palestinian movement Hamas announced today that six premature babies and nine intensive care patients died in Gaza's main Al Shifa hospital due to a lack of electricity.

That hospital was the target of an attack on Saturday in the war between Israel and Hamas. At the time, the hospital administration announced that there were 39 prematurely born babies and that the medical staff was giving hand massages and breathing to sustain life in critical patients.

The British television network BBC reported this morning that the hospital ran out of fuel and that contact with the staff of the health facility was lost.

Emergency sirens sounded in northern Israel