A group of 28 premature babies was transferred from the largest hospital in Gaza to Egypt for urgent treatment today, Monday, while Palestinian health authorities said people were killed inside another hospital in Gaza surrounded by Israeli tanks.

The newborns were at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, where several others died after their incubators malfunctioned amid the collapse of medical services during the Israeli military assault on the city of Gaza.

Israeli forces took control of Al-Shifa Hospital last week to search for what they said was a Hamas tunnel network built beneath it. Hundreds of patients, medical staff, and displaced persons left Al-Shifa Hospital over the weekend, with doctors saying the forces expelled them, and Israel saying the departure was voluntary.

Live footage broadcast by Egypt's Cairo Channel showed medical staff carefully lifting the small infants from inside an ambulance and placing them into mobile incubators, which were then transported through a parking lot to other ambulances.

The children were transferred on Sunday to a hospital in Rafah, on the southern border of the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas, to stabilize their condition before transferring them to Egypt.

A spokesperson for the World Health Organization said that all evacuated children were “suffering from serious injuries.” WHO said on Sunday that none of the infants were accompanied by family members, as the Gaza Ministry of Health is currently unable to locate close relatives. Six healthcare workers were evacuated with the infants.

Eight infants have died since doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital issued an international alert this month regarding 39 premature babies at risk due to inadequate infection control, clean water, and medication in the neonatal ward.

Communications cut off at besieged Gaza hospital

The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in gunfire on the Indonesian Hospital complex, which is surrounded by Israeli tanks.

Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the facility, located in the town of Beit Lahia northeast of Gaza, was subjected to artillery shelling. Palestinian health officials said there are frantic efforts to evacuate civilians to safety.

The Israel Defense Forces, responding to a question regarding the hospital, said that forces fired at militants inside the hospital while taking "many measures to minimize harm" to non-combatants.

The Israeli army told Reuters: "During the night, terrorists fired from inside the Indonesian hospital in Gaza towards the Israel Defense Forces operating outside the hospital. In response, IDF forces targeted the specific source of enemy fire directly." No shells were fired toward the hospital."

Like all other health facilities in the northern half of Gaza, the Indonesian hospital, established in 2016 with funding from Indonesian organizations, largely ceased operations but still shelters patients, staff, and displaced residents.

Fuel and medicine are running out across the entire sector, which has been under an Israeli siege for six weeks.

Fighting in the north, reports of strikes in the south

Eyewitnesses reported on Monday heavy fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces trying to advance into the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which shelters 100,000 people and which Israel considers a major hub for militants.

Palestinian medics say repeated Israeli shelling on Jabalia, an urban extension of Gaza city that originated from a refugee camp established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, has killed dozens of civilians.

Hamas and local witnesses say militants are conducting guerrilla warfare in pockets in the densely populated north, including parts of Gaza city and the large Jabalia and Shati refugee camps.

The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, a Hamas ally, said its fighters ambushed seven Israeli military vehicles during clashes in the northern areas of Beit Hanun, Beit Lahia, Al-Saftawi, and western Jabalia. Reuters could not independently confirm the fighting.

In the southern part of the Gaza Strip, health officials said at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on homes in the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. Hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents who fled the north of the Strip are seeking refuge in southern areas, including Rafah.

The Israeli army released a statement including a video of airstrikes and forces moving from house to house in Gaza, saying they killed three commanders of Hamas’s Saraya and a group of Palestinian fighters, without specifying exact locations.

Hostage talks ongoing: Israeli ambassador

About 240 hostages were taken during the deadly cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7, prompting Israel to invade the small Palestinian territories to eliminate the Islamic movement after several indecisive wars since 2007.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians including several Canadians, were killed in the Hamas attack according to Israeli statistics, making it the deadliest day in Israel’s 75-year history.

Since then, the Hamas-led Gaza government has said that at least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children, due to ongoing Israeli shelling.

Despite ongoing fighting, US and Israeli officials say a Qatari-mediated deal to free some hostages held in the Gaza Strip and temporarily halt fighting to allow aid deliveries to besieged civilians is close.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, said in an interview on ABC’s This Week program that Israel hopes Hamas will release a large number of hostages “in the coming days.”

The United Nations says two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been displaced.

In Beijing, Arab and Muslim ministers joined international calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while their delegation visited major global capitals to pressure for the end of fighting and allow humanitarian aid to reach the affected civilians.

Some aid has entered through the Rafah commercial crossing with Egypt, where about 40 trucks carrying equipment for a UAE field hospital are expected soon, according to a statement from the Gaza General Authority for Crossings and Borders.