According to global rights group Amnesty International, Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip are “denied the conditions they need to live and live in safety” amid a genocidal war in the enclave.
Amnesty warned on Tuesday that women and girls in Gaza have been pushed to the “margins” as Israel’s war has unleashed a series of hardships, from mass displacement to the destruction of the local health system.
Recommended stories
List of 3 itemsEnd of list
Amnesty said in a statement that pregnant women and those needing treatment for cancer and other illnesses are particularly hard hit by the lack of adequate health services in the region.
“This systematic erosion of their rights to health, safety, dignity and a future is not an unfortunate by-product of war; it is a deliberate war targeting women and girls,” the group said.
“This is the unintended consequence of Israel’s calculated policies and practices of multiple mass displacements, deliberate restrictions on basic and essential goods, as well as humanitarian relief and two years of relentless bombardment that have devastated Gaza’s health system and destroyed entire families.”
More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Israeli attacks have continued, killing more than 600 people, despite a US-brokered “ceasefire” that took effect in October last year, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Israel continues to block the steady flow of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced across the Strip due to Israeli bombardment.
Last week, the United Nations Humanitarian Office (OCHA) said the health sector in Gaza remains “under significant constraints” as a result of restrictions on medical supplies and equipment and fuel.
“Sexual and reproductive health services are severely hampered due to damaged infrastructure, lack of essential medicines and supplies, and limited referral capacity,” OCHA said, adding that 180 women give birth every day in Gaza.
“Severe bed shortages mean women undergoing major procedures, including caesarean sections, are often discharged within hours and returned to overcrowded transfer settings, increasing the risks of complications and infection,” the agency said.
Maternal and neonatal health problems
This was echoed by Amnesty, which said on Tuesday that medical workers in Gaza had seen “exponential increases in maternal and newborn health conditions over the past 29 months” as a result of Israel’s genocide.
This includes premature births, low birth weight babies and babies suffering from respiratory conditions, malnutrition in pregnant women and postpartum depression, the rights group said.
“Displacement conditions have led to epidemics,” Dr Nasser Bulbol, a hospital neonatologist at Al Helou Hospital in Gaza City, told Amnesty, adding that there has been an increase in high-risk pregnancies due to conditions in the Strip.
“And most of the women come here under stress, trauma and uncertainty, having experienced multiple displacements, lost loved ones, not being able to get the nutritious food they need.”
A 22-year-old Palestinian woman from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza said she weighed just 43 kilograms (94 pounds) when she gave birth to a son in mid-January.
“My baby was born with a lung infection in both lungs; he spent several days in the intensive care unit and is now a bit better, but still can’t breathe properly and is in an incubator,” said a woman who was displaced and lives in al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza.
“I am afraid he will get sick because I live in a tent by the sea, and it is very cold and there is no way to keep warm. I have another child who is 18 months old, and he is also sick with cold,” she told the rights group.
(tags to translate)news
