According to Palestinian sources, the Israeli shelling of Gaza has displaced approximately 500,000 Palestinian women and girls and injured over 18,000 individuals.
UN Women reports approximately 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are without access to essential health services and 5,522 women are expected to give birth this month, all in the absence of adequate medical facilities.
The war has left thousands of Palestinian children fatherless, propelling many women into the role of breadwinner—a position that comes with its own set of challenges in a society with a 19% female labor force participation rate, among the world’s lowest. The loss of a father can be especially detrimental for young girls, as financial strain may push them into early marriages. According to the Global Partnership for Education, girls in conflict zones are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys and are less likely to return after a ceasefire.
The bombardments, damaged or non-functioning health facilities, massive levels of displacement, collapsing water and electricity supplies as well as restricted access to food and medicines, are severely disrupting maternal, newborn, and child health services. There are an estimated 50 000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 giving birth every day. Fifteen per cent of them are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications and need additional medical care.
These expecting mothers are unable to obtain the emergency obstetric assistance they require to safely give birth and care for their babies. Due to the closure of 14 hospitals and 45 basic health care centers, some women are forced to give birth in shelters, their homes, on the streets among debris, or in overcrowded healthcare facilities, where cleanliness is deteriorating and the danger of infection and medical problems is increasing. Health-care institutions are also being targeted; on November 1, Al Hilo Hospital, a critical maternity facility, was bombarded.
Shelter conditions in Gaza for the estimated 1.4 million internally displaced people have become dire, with women and girls reporting a severe lack of menstrual hygiene products, cases of sexually transmitted diseases and urinary tract infections with little to no medical treatment available in the severely overcrowded shelters.
