In a shocking discovery, a journalist from Emirati TV channel Al-Mashhad found decomposing infants in the pediatric ICU of Al-Nasr Children's Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital had been abandoned and left in disarray during the Israeli military's ground assault on northern Gaza. The distressing footage, shared widely on social media, offered a glimpse into the horrors of war that Palestinians in Gaza and people around the world witnessed.

The journalist, Mohammed Baalousha, reported the grim scene after entering the heavily damaged pediatric ICU two weeks after the hospital was evacuated. The raw footage obtained by NBC News shows at least three of the five dead infants in various stages of decomposition, surrounded by medical equipment.

Two independent forensic pathologists who reviewed the footage confirmed that the advanced state of decomposition was consistent with the approximately two-week period between the infants being abandoned and the video being recorded.

Dr. Mustafa Al-Kahlot, director of Al-Nasr Hospital, explained that the evacuation was a harrowing experience. With Israeli tanks encircling the hospital and heavy gunfire and shelling, the hospital was deemed unsafe and therefore evacuated. Unfortunately, five infants, several of whom were premature, were unable to be safely evacuated due to their fragile condition, relying on oxygen machines for survival.

The distressing video footage corroborates earlier pleas for help made by Dr. Al-Kahlot during the evacuation period. In an earlier video obtained and verified by NBC News, he urgently appealed to global organizations for assistance in evacuating the eight patients, including a premature baby, from the pediatric ICU. Dr. Al-Kahlot confirmed the death of a child due to the lack of oxygen and expressed concern that if the electricity in the department was cut off, more lives would be lost.

This tragedy at Al-Nasr Children's Hospital had largely gone unreported until now, overshadowed by the attention on the precarious situation at Al Shifa, one of Gaza's largest hospitals, during the intense bombardment by Israeli forces last month. Eight premature babies from Al Shifa, which also faced power outages, tragically lost their lives.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al Qudra pointed the blame at the Israeli military for the deaths of the five infants in Al-Nasr Hospital and criticized the lack of coordination and support from international organizations. Al Qudra mentioned that they had notified the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the patients left behind during the evacuation process, but due to the challenging security situation, the ICRC was unable to commit to assisting.

The ICRC, when approached for a comment, acknowledged the multiple requests for evacuation help from hospitals in northern Gaza but cited the challenging security situation in their inability to engage in such operations.

The circulating footage of the deceased newborn babies has sparked outrage globally. The ICRC denounced the tragedy as an "unacceptable reality of how civilians, including babies and children, pay the price in conflict."

As the ceasefire comes to an end, the haunting images of the abandoned infants in Al-Nasr Hospital serve as a painful reminder of the devastating toll that war has taken on innocent lives in Gaza. The urgent need for international support and attention to protect the most vulnerable in times of conflict remains a critical challenge.