CAIRO (Reuters) -A first group of prematurely born babies who were evacuated from hospital in the Gaza Strip crossed into Egypt for medical treatment on Monday, according to live footage and Egypt's Al Qahera TV.

More than two dozen babies were expected to cross, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Al Qahera TV. The newborns had been in Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, where several other babies died amid a collapse in medical services partly caused by power cuts when fuel ran out.

Live footage aired by Al Qahera showed medical staff carefully lifting tiny babies from inside an ambulance and placing them in mobile incubators, which were then wheeled across a car park towards other ambulances.

The babies were taken on Sunday to a hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza so their condition could be stabilized ahead of transfer to Egypt.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Clauda Tanios, writing by Aidan Lewis and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Janet Lawrence)