Israel says 50 incubators for hospitals enter Gaza Strip

The Defense Ministry body that coordinates Israeli activity in Palestinian territories said Sunday that 50 incubators designated for hospitals in Gaza entered the enclave in the morning.

COGAT did not say who provided the incubators and through which point of entry they crossed into the strip.

The incubators were designated for Shifa Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, the European Hospital, Nasser Hospital and Aqsa Hospital, according to COGAT.

The Israel Defense Forces has raided several health facilities during the war, while offering evidence that Hamas uses hospitals as cover for terror activities. Hamas denies operating out of hospitals and says Israel’s allegations serve as a pretext to destroy the healthcare system.

International organizations have repeatedly warned of the collapse of several hospitals in Gaza and have urged the delivery of medical supplies.

After dozens of Palestinians died and hundreds more were wounded during the chaos surrounding a rush on an aid convoy in northern Gaza on Thursday, international pressure has increased on Israel to facilitate the entry of more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

50 incubators designated for hospitals in northern and southern Gaza Strip have entered Gaza this morning.
List of hospitals these incubators will be delivered to: Shifa Hospital, Kamal Adwan, Hospital, European Hospital, Nasser Hospital, and Aqsa Hospital. pic.twitter.com/PoYE3BMmbx

— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 3, 2024

Hamas claims at least 118 were killed. It accused Israeli troops of shooting at the crowd of thousands, while the IDF maintains many of the casualties were trampled in a chaotic crush for the aid, and that troops only fired at a few individuals who rushed toward them in a threatening manner.

In a further sign of the desperate situation, Channel 12 news reported that locals looted some of the dozens of aid trucks that entered northern Gaza on Sunday, without providing details.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the country will try new solutions for delivering humanitarian supplies to northern Gaza this week.

Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the head of COGAT, visited the United Arab Emirates in recent days to coordinate with senior officials on increasing humanitarian aid to the Strip, according to an unsourced Channel 12 report.

The delivery of aid to Gaza has been a point of contention in the devastating five-month war, triggered by the unprecedented shock Hamas attack on October 7, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.

Israel, which checks all trucks entering Gaza from both the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings, has blamed the United Nations for not delivering the aid fast enough after they are cleared, and for leading to a general fall-off in deliveries over the past month.

The UN has said it is becoming more difficult to distribute aid inside Gaza. The flow of aid from Egypt has almost dried up in the past two weeks, and a collapse in security has made it increasingly difficult to distribute the food that does get through, according to UN data and officials.

While more trucks have arrived through Kerem Shalom, they have, of late, been disrupted by relatives of Israeli hostages and protesters seeking to block deliveries. Israel has repeatedly said it is prepared to speed up the clearance of aid.

The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face starvation. Aid officials have said that airdrops are not an efficient means of distributing aid and are a measure of last resort.

Before the war with Hamas, Gaza relied on 500 trucks with supplies entering daily.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.