16 February 2024

Some 1.5 million people – including tens of thousands of pregnant women, new mothers and newborns – are now crammed into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, in a desperate search for safety amid war. Tightly packed with nowhere to go, they find the prospect of further military operations in Rafah terrifying. 

With bombs falling and just a trickle of aid, a public health disaster is worsening. Some 500,000 cases of communicable disease, including meningitis and acute Diarrhoea, have been reported. Women are reportedly miscarrying at a higher rate than before the war, and in many cases, Caesarean sections, amputations and other surgeries are being performed with partial anesthesia due to a lack of supplies. Everyone in Gaza is hungry, including 50,000 pregnant women, with malnutrition making them more susceptible to disease and less able to recover.

UNFPA and partners are providing support in this devastating crisis, but it’s not enough, as we do not have the access required to support all women in need. Military operations in Rafah would make it even harder to deliver aid, leaving “an already-fragile humanitarian operation at death’s door,” Martin Griffiths, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, has said

We need a humanitarian ceasefire now, to end this brutal and intense bombardment of Gaza, to free all remaining hostages, and to enable full-scale aid deliveries to reach people in need across the territory. 

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Suhad Matar, 36, who has moved from the north to the south of Gaza in search of safety, has been forced to flee violence and destruction – including a bombardment on a building where she and her family were staying – time and again. © UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
“My family and I miraculously emerged from under the rubble,” Suhad tells UNFPA. “It was a tough journey to Rafah. It was exhausting walking long distances while pregnant.”
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© UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
“Today, I am scheduled for a Caesarean section… Every time it rains, the tent floods and our beds get wet. It takes two or three days for the beds to dry out. The thing that worries me the most is how I'll keep my newborn daughter warm,” says Suhad. “I've chosen the name Juman for her. It means ‘Pearl.’”

“Unbelievable terror – what I suffer from the most is the extreme terror.” – Suhad, 36

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© UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
Suhad is among the estimated 1.5 million people seeking safety in Rafah. Most are living in an enormous tent city. The majority are children, most of whom are starving. Famine is approaching at terrifying speed.
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Children watch as women make bread outside a tent. © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
Everyone in Gaza is hungry, including the 50,000 pregnant women.
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© UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
Taline, 11, now lives with her family in a displacement camp in Rafah. Every day she waits in a line for at least three hours to get water.
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“There are not enough incubators, so there are four or more babies sharing each one,” says Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer, Paediatric Specialist, at the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital. “Most of them unfortunately die.” © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
In Rafah’s Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital, 77 babies share 20 incubators.
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UNFPA has provided essential supplies to the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital, including for reproductive, maternal and neonatal health. These will help boost the hospital’s capacity. © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
According to a midwife, the maternity hospital currently conducts up to 78 deliveries a day.
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For some of the babies who get dropped off at hospitals, it is unclear who their parents are and whether they are dead or missing. Hospital workers hope that they may be able to reunite parents and children one day. © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
Hospital workers are taking care of children whose parents are dead or missing.

“The situation in Gaza is beyond any of our worst nightmares, and it’s getting worse.” –  Dominic Allen, UNFPA Representative for the State of Palestine

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Palestinian children hold placards during a march in Rafah on 14 February, demanding an end to the war and their right to live. © Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
“We refuse to die.”
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Medical workers are reporting seeing miscarriages at a higher rate than before this war. © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
“Terror and anxiety is causing contractions in the uterus, leading to premature birth,” says Dr. Al Shaer.
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The lack of supplies is affecting the whole of Gaza and is even more acute in the north. Samaa, 17, had only partial anesthesia when she gave birth by Caesarean section. © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
“I didn't want to give birth during war in such dire circumstances,” says Samaa.
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© UNFPA
UNRWA remains the backbone of the humanitarian response, playing an indispensable role in getting supplies to people.

Decisions to withhold funds from UNRWA must be revoked. Abandoning UNRWA now is tantamount to abandoning Gaza.

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“We had a girl who was forced to flee and got her first period while displaced,” says Fahima Ebeid, a project coordinator for UNFPA. “To receive a dignity kit at the shelter was crucial for her.” © UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
There are 690,000 women and girls of menstruating age in Gaza.
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© UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda
“There is nothing left resembling the life we used to live before the war,” says Seba, 28.
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© UNICEF/Abed Zaqout
“I hope the war ends, and by next summer I can come with my family to enjoy the sea,” says 8-year-old Hadeel, who is staying in a shelter on the beach in Rafah.
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© UNICEF/Omar Al-Qattaa
“The situation in Gaza is a festering wound on our collective conscience that threatens the entire region,” António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, has said.

Guterres continued by saying: “Nothing justifies the horrific terror attacks launched by Hamas against Israel on 7 October. Nor is there any justification for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Yet Israeli military operations have resulted in destruction and death in Gaza at a scale and speed without parallel since I became Secretary-General.”

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