According to our team on the ground, healthy pregnancies in Gaza are no longer possible.

Already, 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers face the fear of death not only from ongoing conflict, but from pregnancy or birth complications as maternal services have all but collapsed. Now, they also face the imminent threat of famine.

For pregnant women and newborns, every day has become a fight for survival. Hunger and malnutrition have spread through Gaza at frightening speed — causing catastrophic rates of disease, death and despair.

With each meal missed, the odds of a woman delivering an undernourished, undersized baby rise. New mothers are not getting enough food to nurse their newborns — who are often too weak to cry. Doctors are even reporting that newborns are dying because they weigh too little.

The humanitarian crisis is made worse due to a decimated health system. Only three maternity hospitals remain even partially functional. The medical facilities that are still open are overwhelmed with patients. Life-threatening obstetric complications and premature births have soared since the outbreak of hostilities.

UNFPA has delivered enough lifesaving medicines and equipment to support more than half of the births — 21,000 — in Gaza since conflict escalated six months ago.

But more aid is urgently needed to reach pregnant women, new mothers, and their newborns.

Will you make an emergency gift to deliver lifesaving care to pregnant women, newborns, and all those suffering in Gaza and around the world? Our Humanitarian Response Fund in Gaza is only 47% funded, and millions of lives hang in the balance.

The suffering must end and peace must prevail. We condemn the violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel, including all sexual violence, and echo the UN Secretary-General’s call for a sustained humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages by Hamas.

Thank you for being there for women and girls.

— USA for UNFPA