ISRAEL has stepped up its efforts to rescue 36 newborn babies fighting for life in a Gaza hospital with no power.

Troops loaded portable battery-powered incubators into vans in a race against time to save them.

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It is hoped they can be moved from the Al-Shifa hospital to a safer location as intense street battles rage beyond its walls.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “Our war is against Hamas, not against the people in Gaza.

“Especially not the sick, the women, or the children.

“Our war is against Hamas, who use them as human shields.”

Israeli military and intelligence chiefs are convinced the terror group’s leaders are hiding in a bunker beneath the hospital – which cannot run generators or incubators providing life-saving oxygen without power.

The Israel Defence Forces said it left 300 litres of fuel at an agreed drop-off point at the weekend — but Hamas terror chiefs blocked the hospital from using it.

Al Shifa’s Dr Marwan Abu Saada said the hospital typically uses 24,000 litres of fuel a day to run its generators.

The babies are being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed, and the hospital has no plans to evacuate them.

Their plight has increased international pressure on Israel to offer a humanitarian pause in fighting.