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Before Oct. 7, Lubna Al Rayyes ran a prestigious school in Gaza City. She and her husband, a clothing store owner, were expecting their third child – a surprise at 42. She was excited but nervous, knowing it would be high risk.
After Oct. 7, when a Hamas attack on Israel kicked off a war in Gaza, every pregnancy there would become high risk.
As war forced women to fight to protect their pregnancies and stay alive themselves, Al Rayyes began to talk regularly with reporters Gabrielle Berbey and Salman Ahad Khan.
Eight weeks from her due date, after fleeing Israeli strikes in her home and then fleeing again, not knowing where she’d give birth, she told us she was depressed. Al Rayyes knows she’ll need a C-section; she also knows many hospitals have no anesthesia. “I feel down, really. This is not the life we used to have.”
This week on Reveal, Al Rayyes shows us the reality of being pregnant in a war zone. We also learn more about famine’s effect on fetal development and the collapse of the Palestinian medical infrastructure.
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