Palestinian medics evacuated 31 premature babies from Gaza City’s war-torn Al-Shifa Hospital in a high-risk operation, the UN has said, pledging to also move patients and staff who remain there.

The infants were taken in Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulances to a hospital in southern Gaza for assessment and treatment, the WHO said in a statement, with 11 in critical condition.

Doctors found that “all the babies are fighting serious infections due to lack of medical supplies and impossibility to continue infection control measures in Al-Shifa Hospital”, it said.

None were accompanied by family members as the health ministry in Gaza had been unable to locate them, the WHO added, and two babies had died at Al-Shifa while awaiting the transfer.