A UN children’s agency official has said that Israel has repeatedly denied permission to transfer incubators from an evacuated hospital in North Gaza, adding to strain on overcrowded hospitals further south where newborn babies are now sharing oxygen masks.

James Elder, Unicef spokesperson, described mothers and babies lining the corridor floors of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, and said that premature babies were being forced to share oxygen masks and beds. Meanwhile, vital equipment is stranded in hospitals that have been shut in the north.

“We’ve been trying to recover incubators from a hospital that was evacuated in the north, and we’ve had four missions denied simply to get those incubators,” he told Reuters by video link from Gaza, referring to supplies now stuck at the damaged Al-Rantissi Children’s Hospital in Gaza City.

Read more here.