By: Hamna Haque
From October 7th, 2023 to the time of writing this blog post, April 19th, 2024, there have been at least 34,012 Palestinians killed in Gaza as well as 76,833 Palestinians injured, according to reports from the Ministry of Health in Gaza (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2024). Of those killed, it is estimated 70% were women or children (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 2024). In October 2023, of the 1.1 million Palestinians who were forced to flee northern Gaza due to Israel’s evacuation order, it is estimated that there were 50,000 pregnant women (United Nations Population Fund, 2023). Due to stress and shock, many of these women were miscarrying pregnancies. There was no safe place for women to give birth either, as the availability of medical facilities and supplies was drastically decreasing.
More than 6 months later, the conditions in Gaza have only worsened. Israel’s ongoing blockade has produced an extreme lack of essential medicines, medical supplies, access to safe delivery services for pregnant women, and access to food and water. Health care workers in Gaza report a 300% increase in miscarriage rate among pregnant women as they are forced to give birth in dangerous and inhumane conditions. It is incredibly difficult for pregnant women to carry healthy pregnancies and they are at a much higher risk of infection and death, after giving birth or having c-sections. Lack of food and nutrition has resulted in poor health and poor fetal and newborn health as well (Cheung et al., 2024).
Walaa, a displaced Palestinian woman, holds her newborn in a UNRWA warehouse in Rafah, southern Gaza. [Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post]
In January, 2024, Executive director of Palestinian Family Planning & Protection Association, Ammal Awadallah, detailed the horrific conditions for Palestinian women. Due to the overcrowded facilities and extremely limited resources, pregnant women are at severe risk of giving birth in cars, tents, and shelters. Many pregnant women make the journey on foot to get to hospitals and health centers to give birth but are turned away because centers lack capacity. Only women who are fully dilated are admitted into health centers but are dismissed within a few hours after giving birth. The risk of maternal mortality is high due to c-sections and births being performed without any clean or basic medical supplies or anesthesia, increasing risk of hemorrhaging and infections. The risk for infant mortality is high as well, with many newborns “dying from a lack of sterile environment and specialized staff”, says Nour Beydoun, CARE’s regional advisor on protection and gender in emergencies (Cheung et al., 2024).
Hundreds of displaced Palestinians have erected makeshift shelters out of wooden two-by-fours and nylon tarps in Rafah city, near the border with Egypt. [Grayscale Media /CARE]
For menstruating women and girls who are already dealing with constant bombs raining from the skies, forced starvation, sickness, and fear, they are also unable to meet the basic need of managing their menstrual hygiene in a safe and sanitary way. With almost no access to functioning toilets, running water, and a severe lack of feminine hygiene products, women and girls are forced to deal with their menstrual cycle in humiliating and unsafe ways. Displaced women and girls in Rafah have resorted to cutting out scraps of tents as a substitute for menstrual pads, using them without access to a private space, and often forced to use these substitutes for much longer than is safe, posing serious health risks. Without water to wash themselves or stay clean, often weeks go by until these women and girls can shower again (ActionAid, 2024).
In overcrowded shelters, there are severe shortages of clean water, sanitation, and basic medical supplies and services. Children and infants are dying from easily preventable and treatable illnesses, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, and malnourishment. According to the World Health Organization, about 30% of the roughly 346,000 cases of diarrhea that have been recorded since mid-October consist of children under 5 years of age. Based on figures by the Ministry of Health, UNICEF stresses the need to increase medical evacuations for children, warning that “every ten minutes, one child is killed or injured in Gaza,” (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2024). Since October 7th, more than 12,000 children have been injured in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. This averages about 70 children injured per day. However, the real toll is believed to be much higher since injuries are rarely disaggregated by age (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2024).
A woman holds her three-year-old son, Ekrem Salih Abu Shemale, who died after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Gaza on October 26, 2023 [Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images]
In April of 2024, UNICEF Communication Specialist, Tess Ingram, shared her experience after spending two weeks in Gaza. Ingram describes how this war has had a disproportionate impact on children, due to how many tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and how “every second person in Gaza is a child” (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2024). She recounts the devastating stories of children being horrifically injured from bomb blasts and shootings: A 14-year-old boy being strip-searched, left naked, and questioned for hours before being shot at with his father, who was killed. He now requires major reconstructive surgery to his internal and external pelvis. A 9-year-old girl sustained serious open wounds as a result of a blast. A 16-year-old orphaned girl, recovering from a broken leg. A 13-year-old boy who is recovering three months after he suffered an arm amputation without anesthesia. And a 10-year-old boy who was shot in the head while buying herbs. He stayed in intensive care and died the next day (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2024).
Children stand amid the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli air strike in the center of the Gaza Strip. [AFP/Getty Images]
After October 7th, the mental health of both Palestinian children in Gaza deteriorated dramatically. Children have seen, heard, and experienced everything- the bombs, bullets, disease, and hunger. According to Dr. Samah Jabr, chair of the Palestinian ministry of health’s mental health unit, the horrors experienced by Palestinians does not easily translate into the clinical definition or treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Jabr explains that with PTSD, one goes home after experiencing trauma but their mind is stuck in a loop of the traumatic experience. However, “in Palestine, the loop is reality. The threat is still there … We see this more as ‘chronic’ traumatic stress disorder” (The Guardian, 2024). In her work, Jabr prioritizes Sumud, an Arabic word akin to steadfastness or resilience, important values that are shared among Palestinians. She shares how the resilience of the Palestinian people never ceases to amaze her, but “Giving people who lost their humanity, people were reduced to nothing, giving them their dignity back … Psychologists can’t do that alone. We need responses at state and international level. We need the rest of the world to stand with us” (The Guardian, 2024).
References:
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-155
https://www.jezebel.com/miscarriages-in-gaza-have-increased-300-under-israeli-1851168680
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/14/mental-health-palestine-children
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