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We promised we’d share an update out of Gaza about the escalating humanitarian crisis. So here are the numbers: 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza cannot access health services. 5,500 will give birth this month, as Gaza’s health system nears the brink of total collapse. 2/3 of Gaza’s health facilities are no longer functioning. 19 hospitals have been damaged. 24 ambulances have been destroyed. Women and girls need urgent health care and protection amid relentless bombardment. Please make your first emergency gift to deliver lifesaving care to women and girls surviving this crisis and crises around the world:
“My baby was feeling every explosion,” a pregnant woman from northern Gaza told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, from the school where she is currently sheltering. The night before, she had slept on a cold floor that rocked with each bomb blast, she said. Another woman described going into labor as she and her family evacuated their home amid the bombardment. "I had no idea where or how I was going to deliver my baby," she said. She managed to reach an ambulance, which transported her to the maternity ward at the largest medical facility in Gaza — but she was discharged just three hours after giving birth to a baby girl to make space for other arrivals.
One 30-year-old pregnant woman told UNFPA she hid in the shadows as bombs fell. She has been overwhelmed with dizziness, fatigue and a pounding headache since fleeing her home. "Each step felt like a race against death," she said. UNFPA continues to support reproductive health services by distributing hygiene kits in 49 shelters in south Gaza, delivering medications for pregnant women, supporting counseling services via an emergency helpline, and more lifesaving interventions.
Thank you for not looking away. — USA for UNFPA |
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