27 November 2024

In Gaza, nearly 50 mothers and their children are killed every day. 

And in northern Gaza, the flow of aid has been grinding to a halt, leading to warnings of imminent famine. 

Parents under immense stress tell UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, that they just want to be able to give birth without bombs falling; to find food and milk; and to put their children to bed warm and safe each night. But in Gaza right now, parenting is simply about surviving.

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Jawaher was fleeing violence in Gaza city amid the terrifying sound of drones, missiles and gunfire when she felt her first labour pains. The last thing Jawaher wanted was for the baby to arrive right then and there. “I was not ready for childbirth,” she said. Jawaher went through two full days of labour before reaching the Al-Sahaba hospital where she was able to give birth safely.

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With nearly 80 per cent of the Gaza Strip under active evacuation orders and 130 births expected across Gaza every day, Jawaher’s experience of going into labour while on the move is far from uncommon.

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© UNFPA/Dominic Allen

Jawaher gave birth at the Al-Sahaba Hospital in Gaza city, which has been under immense pressure since the nearby Al-Shifa Hospital was decimated by air strikes* (pictured above, in April 2024). A World Health Organization report stated that 84 per cent of health facilities in Gaza have been destroyed. UNFPA has provided equipment and supplies to the Al-Sahaba Hospital.

*Al-Shifa Hospital was a specialist unit for obstetric emergencies. It has since reopened a general emergency department, in September 2024, but has so far been unable to provide maternal health services.

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A young girl looks out at destroyed buildings. Eighty per cent of the Gaza Strip is now a high-risk area from which people have been forced to flee in search of the basics: food, water, shelter.
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Severe destruction of the street leading to Omar Al-Mukhtar Market in Gaza city, which used to be a bustling shopping centre, frequented by families.
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Families on the move. Lives have been uprooted, not once, but over and over again. “We are very tired,” Jawaher said.
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Tents have been set up at the new displacement camp at Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza city, where Jawaher is staying with her newborn. The stadium used to host soccer matches.
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A 70-year-old woman experiences her third displacement from northern Gaza. Exhausted from walking long distances without water, food, or shelter, she sits alongside other displaced people on the side of the road.
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A baby sleeps on a mattress in the basement of the Yarmouk Stadium, where families are finding relative safety but essentials are in short supply.
“Who can this mattress be enough for? Five people on the same mattress and with one blanket…” - Ali, father of three.
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Ali and his three sons in a tent at the Yarmouk stadium, Gaza city. The family survived an air strike on their neighbourhood but are still struggling to stay alive. “We are about to die from hunger; there is nothing to eat,” Ali said.
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Aisha, another neighbour of Jawaher’s at the new camp, hangs up washing. Aisha fled Beit Lahia surrounded by tanks. “I will never forget my daughter crying when she fell, fearing the tanks and the army screaming through the loudspeakers,” she told UNFPA.
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Lina and her son were displaced when the Israeli army attacked homes in their neighbourhood. During the chaos, some of her family members were detained. She doesn’t know where, or how, they are.
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Attempts by the UN to support people in Gaza are being impeded or denied. Just 41 per cent of aid was allowed entry into Gaza between 1-18 November. UNFPA’s supplies are among those stuck at the border.

UNFPA continues its work to support women and girls, including by operating five mobile maternal health units, deploying midwives, increasing protection services for survivors of gender-based violence and channelling essential supplies to hospitals. However, as aid movements into Gaza fall to their lowest levels in 11 months, needs are soaring, and the majority of Palestinians are being left without the essentials to survive.

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