About 15,000 babies are expected to be born in Gaza between October 7 and the end of 2023, with all at serious risk due to escalating violence and crisis-level medical care, water and food, Save the Children said.
This report by Save the Children is based on recent UN data which estimates that around 180 women give birth in Gaza per day and represents the rate of multiple births in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as shown by a recent study.
About 15 percent of women who give birth are likely to experience complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Save the Children revealed that more than 66,000 babies were expected to be born in Gaza in 2023, with 5,500 pregnant women due to give birth in the coming month at a time when people lack basic supplies. Clean water is scarce, food and medicine are running out, and pregnant or nursing women have a hard time finding food.
Hospitals and health facilities already facing severe shortages are under attack, putting thousands of patients, including pregnant women and newborns, at grave risk.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than half of Gaza’s hospitals, 22 out of 36, were now “dysfunctional”.
Maha, a Save the Children staff member in Gaza who has now been relocated to the south but used to hide outside Al Shifa Hospital, spoke of what she witnessed a few days ago when the fuel ran out.
“The scenes in the hospitals were terrible. Pregnant women in the corridors screaming in pain. Unidentified newborn babies in incubators, no living family members. The fuel ran out, I had to run, I don’t know if they survived,” she said.
Jason Lee, director of Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory, said babies are born into a nightmare. humanitarian disaster.
“Their families are cut off from the basics. Pregnant women giving birth without medical care and premature babies dying in incubators. Fuel must be released into Gaza to power generators and health facilities must be protected. The violence must stop. We need a ceasefire. We need him now,” he said.
Save the Children has been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children affected by the ongoing conflict since 1953. Save the Children’s team in the occupied Palestinian territory is working around the clock, preparing vital supplies to support people in need and working to find ways to get aid into Gaza, Klix.ba reports.
Photo: illustration
