Netanyahu says Israel will control Gaza security after war; Gaza’s biggest hospital ‘out of service’

Thirty-seven babies born premature and receiving care at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City are at risk of death because Israel's fuel embargo for the hospital is leaving it and its medical devices unplugged, Gaza health ministry officials said today.

The office of the health ministry initially released a higher number for at-risk babies but said one of them already died today.

The office said the remaining babies at Al-Shifa, which has been the focus of Israeli Defense Forces under its claim that subterranean space there is being used as a headquarters for Hamas militants, are threatened with death at any moment.

Fuel was expected to run out tonight, and when that happens incubators will stop working, the office said.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, said five people died at Al-Shifa amid a previous power outage.

NBC News has been unable to verify Israel's claim that Hamas was using space beneath the facility. U.S. officials said they have no reason to doubt the claim. Israeli officials have not responded specifically to the claim that 37 babies were at immediate risk of death.

The World Health Organization said it lost communication with contacts at embattled Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City as the facility has been under fire and appeared surrounded by Israeli forces, according to a statement today.

The United Nations agency said Gaza's largest hospital, under repeated attack in the last 48 hours and expecting its last ration of fuel to be used tonight, was surrounded by tanks.

"Staff reported lack of clean water and risk of the last remaining critical functions, including ICUs, ventilators and incubators, soon shutting down due to lack of fuel, putting the lives of patients at immediate risk," WHO said.

The agency called for a cease-fire as well as "the sustained, orderly, unimpeded and safe medical evacuations of critically injured and sick patients," according to its statement.

It was not immediately clear why the communication was lost. Al-Shifa officials have been warning that it was critically low on fuel and other supplies, and that the situation would affect the health of patients.

Israel Defense Forces said Hamas militants have been directing their attacks against Israel in space beneath the hospital, a claim NBC News has been unable to confirm.

London Metropolitan Police officials said 126 arrests were made on the fringes of a pro-Palestinian protest today, and they blamed "right wing protesters" and "football hooligans" for violence, threats and intimidation.

Arrest numbers related to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign event rose from at least 82 earlier today to 126 by the end of the day, Metropolitan Police said in an evening update.

More were expected as London authorities said they would circulate security video images of alleged wrong-doers who were not taken into custody at the event, police said.

Nine officers were injured, including two who were hospitalized, one with a fractured elbow and the other with a displaced hip, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said in the statement.

The suspects who were nabbed today were described as often-inebriated sport ruffians and agitators from the political right — counterprotestors — who, in some cases, allegedly attacked and injured police, carried weapons and set off fireworks, Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

"They arrived early, stating they were there to protect monuments, but some were already intoxicated, aggressive, and clearly looking for confrontation," Twist said.

UNITED NATIONS — The World Health Organization has verified more than 250 attacks on hospitals, clinics, patients and ambulances in Gaza since Hamas’ incursion into Israel on Oct. 7 — as well as 25 attacks on health care in Israel.

In Gaza, the “health system is on its knees” and the situation on the ground “is impossible to describe,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

“As we speak, there are reports of firing outside the al-Shifa and Rantisi hospitals,” he said, adding that Palestinian health workers were still saving lives despite being “directly in the firing line.”

Last week saw attacks on five hospitals in one day in Gaza, Ghebreyesus said, and in the past 48 hours, four hospitals with some 430 beds were put out of action.

He said half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health care centers are not functioning, and facilities that are functioning “are operating way beyond their capacities.”

Six people were arrested, including a juvenile, at protests Friday night in New York City, police said.

Officers were attempting to clear out an area at the northeast corner of East 43rd Street and Lexington Avenue when a person stood in their way, refused to move and "did intentionally place their hands on an officer's chest and push him," the New York Police Department said.

Al’Tariq Calderon-Graves, 28, of Newark, New Jersey, was taken into custody on charges of harassment and obstructing governmental administration.

At that same location, officers were attempting to take another person into custody when that person "pulled on an officer’s shirt, causing the officer to jerk backwards and almost fall onto the ground," according to authorities. The person, identified as Raymond Garcia, also allegedly resisted arrest and fell to the ground, causing an officer to injure his ankle, police said.

Garcia, 34, of Queens, was taken into custody on charges of assault and resisting arrest.

A 17-year-old was also arrested for climbing a light pole during the protest. When he was removed, he damaged several flags on the pole, according to authorities. The juvenile was later released. Three other people arrested were issued summons for disorderly conduct.

The head of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency said in a statement today that the organization was “in mourning for 101 colleagues confirmed killed in Gaza.”

Philippe Lazzarini said that most of his 13,000 colleagues working in the enclave had been displaced.

“They operate 150 UNRWA shelters,” he said. “They keep one third of our health centres open and manage mobile clinics. They deliver medicines to hospitals.”

Calling for the “continuous flow of humanitarian aid” into Gaza, he said: “We must insist on protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including U.N. facilities and hospitals.”

During his news conference today, Benjamin Netanyahu suggested enemy militants have nearly been fully neutralized in their stronghold of northern Gaza.

“Hamas practically lost control of the northern Gaza Strip,” he said.

The claim is an important one, as it may signal a goal post may soon be reached in what can seem like endless conflicts between Israel Defense Forces and militant groups seeking to undermine Israel along its borders.

The prime minister has said Israel does not want to occupy or govern Gaza, but it does want to maintain a role as the supreme security force for the region, with Gaza otherwise demilitarized and Hamas eliminated.

“IDF forces have completed the encirclement of Gaza City,” Netanyahu said today. “They are operating in the heart of the city. They are on the outskirts of Shifa hospital.”

Israeli officials have said Hamas, the militant group behind the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the latest warfare, runs combat operations from beneath the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the north’s Gaza City.

TEL AVIV — As thousands flee northern Gaza amid Israel’s continued offensive in the enclave, those making the journey south are describing harrowing sights along the way.

“The journey was not even a journey,” Tarik Yaghi, 23, told NBC News’ crew on the ground. “It was basically torture.”

“Tanks were left and right. They were shooting everywhere near us, around us, everywhere,” Yaghi said. “We saw limbs, bodies thrown left and right.” He said he also saw “dead children.” But he said he and his loved ones just kept on walking. “We just held our IDs up, did nothing else and just bowed our head down,” he said.

Yaghi said he and his relatives were forced to flee northern Gaza because of Israel’s bombardment and a lack of vital resources, including clean water and medicine; both his mother and uncle have diabetes. “Even if we want to go to hospitals, they bomb them,” he said.

Yaghi said he had been studying as an IT student. “I have an excellent GPA,” he said. “But life is not fair, as they say.”

Police in New York City responded to separate incidents at Holocaust Memorial Park and Manhattan’s Central Synagogue on Saturday.

Just before 10 a.m., officers were called to the park and saw a “grenade inside the pond,” the NYPD said. The bomb squad was called and determined that it was an inert grenade that cannot explode. Police said the scene was cleared. It’s not clear how long the grenade was in the pond, authorities said.

Less than an hour later, police were called to the synagogue for reports of bomb threats to the building, the NYPD said. It was reported that two bags were “going to explode” but nothing was found during a search, according to NBC New York.

“Police quickly surveyed the area and there was a negative result,” authorities said.