From March to April 2024, UN Women surveyed 305 women across Gaza’s five governorates, or regions, including 37 pregnant women. Of these pregnant women, 68 percent had experienced medical complications.
GAZA — Israel’s deadly war on Gaza has had a devastating impact on pregnant women, leaving many of them suffering from miscarriage, urinary tract infections, anaemia and other severe medical complications, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a new report.
In the 50-page report, “‘Five Babies in One Incubator’: Violations of Pregnant Women’s Rights Amid Israel’s Assault on Gaza,” published on Tuesday, the HRW said Israel is imposing an illegal blockade, cutting off access to water, food, and electricity, using starvation as a warfare tactic, targeting the medical system, and repeatedly forcing transfers.
The rights group also said these actions violate the right to follow-up and postnatal care for pregnant women, girls, and their children, as Israeli legislation targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), set to take effect this week, is expected to significantly hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid to the devastated region.
As of January 2025, emergency obstetric and newborn care is only available at seven out of 18 partially functioning hospitals across Gaza, four out of 11 field hospitals, and one community health centre, compared to a total of 20 hospitals and other smaller healthcare facilities that functioned before October 7, 2023.
The World Health Organization has identified 19 types of medical equipment and 24 types of medication for prenatal, delivery and postnatal care that were in short supply and urgently needed as of December 2024.
In July 2024, maternal health experts reported that the rate of miscarriage in Gaza had increased by up to 300 percent since October 7, 2023.
According to a 31-year-old woman, who was two months pregnant when Israel’s war on Gaza began, her family struggled to find food.
“I was starving. We were all in famine in northern Gaza. We had no gas to cook with. I lost a lot of weight,” she said.
She went to Rafah and visited a doctor in his private clinic for a checkup, but he could provide no examination beyond an ultrasound.
Women like her are rushed out of sometimes packed hospitals within a few hours of childbirth to make room for other patients, many of them war casualties.
Severe complications
From March to April 2024, UN Women surveyed 305 women across Gaza’s five governorates, or regions, including 37 pregnant women.
Of these pregnant women, 68 percent had experienced medical complications.
Of the 68 percent, 92 percent reported urinary tract infections (UTIs), 76 percent anaemia, 44 percent hypertensive disorders, and 28 percent preterm labor.
Other concerns included bleeding (20 percent), hemorrhage (16 percent), and stillbirth (12 percent).
Before October 2023, the rates of such medical complications were considerably lower.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that at the end of December 2024, over 48,000 pregnant women were experiencing emergency and catastrophic food insecurity.
In such circumstances, pregnant women in Gaza cannot maintain the good nutrition and healthy diet critical for their health during pregnancy and postpartum, and for fetal development.
‘Five babies in one incubator’
Some babies born preterm need to spend time in a neonatal intensive care unit and in incubators to survive and develop.
Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer at al-Helal al-Emirati maternity hospital in Rafah said they had so few incubators and so many preterm babies that, “we have to put four or five babies in one incubator. Most of them don’t survive.”
Medical experts warned that the risk of infections spreading when babies share incubators is high, especially when, as is the case in Gaza, hospitals cannot adequately clean and sterilize the incubators.
C. TRT World
