[News] Pregnant and lactating women in Gaza are starving and unable to feed their newborns

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.pnn.ps <https://english.pnn.ps/news/46657>
Pregnant and lactating women in Gaza are starving and unable to feed their
newborns
Palestine News Network (PNN)
December 26, 2023
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Gaza/ PNN /

In the midst of Gaza’s spiraling food crisis, tens of thousands of pregnant
women are going desperately hungry, while mothers are so malnourished, they
are unable to breastfeed their newborn babies, today said ActionAid
Palestine.

According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, 71% of Gaza’s
population is now suffering from acute hunger, while 98% of people do not
have enough to eat. The organization, Human Rights Watch, has stated that
the Israeli government is using starvation as a weapon of war, with
devastating effects on Gaza’s population, said ActionAid in a report.

The impact on pregnant women, mothers and their young children is severe.
According to recent UN data, there are more than 50,000 pregnant and 68,000
lactating women in Gaza in need of immediate lifesaving, preventative or
curative nutrition interventions. In total, 7,685 children under five are
suffering from life-threatening wasting – leaving them vulnerable to
developmental delays, disease and in severe cases death – while more than
4,000 are classed as ‘severely wasting’ and in need of life-saving
treatment.

On average, there is now just 1.5 liters of water per person in Gaza per
day to cover all their needs, from drinking to bathing and cleaning. Yet,
in addition to the minimum of 15 liters of water per day per person
required for basic survival, pregnant and lactating women need another 7.5
liters of safe water a day to keep themselves and their babies healthy.

Khitam, a mother to five children including a newborn baby, who is
currently sheltering in a school in Deir Al Balah, told ActionAid she had
nothing to feed her children. In a video message, she said: “There is no
water and no food to eat. My little girl has a rash on her skin due to the
lack of cleanliness here. Our situation is very difficult. How do you drink
water? Is it enough for you and the baby? Of course not! There is no water
to drink. There is no clean water. We barely quench our thirst. I [also]
have four [other] children who have been wanting to eat since the morning
but there is no bread."

Khitam was forced to flee her home due to a bombing just two days after
giving birth and ran while carrying her baby in her arms. She said: "When
the order to evacuate houses was issued...I had given birth just two days
earlier. I was postpartum and tired. I had just been discharged from the
hospital and [was still] bleeding. I was carrying my daughter and running.
We were walking under missiles and shelling, sitting for a while to rest on
the pavement and in the streets.”

People are queuing for hours in the hope of receiving food aid for their
families, but either return empty-handed or with barely enough to keep them
alive, said ActionAid. Inaya, who is staying in a camp in southern Gaza
with her family after her home was destroyed by bombing, said: “For eight
people, we are given three boxes of cheese with a couple of fava bean cans
to last us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

While the scale of need in Gaza is staggering, the amount of aid entering
the territory continues to be wholly inadequate. On average, just 100
trucks carrying humanitarian supplies are currently crossing the border at
Rafah each day. A second border crossing, Kerem Shalom, opened last week
but on the following day, only 79 trucks entered. This is a drop in the
ocean compared to the 500 trucks of aid and other supplies which, before
October 7, entered Gaza every single day.

Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid
Palestine, says: “We are running out of words to describe the depth of the
horror of what people in Gaza are having to endure. An entire population is
going hungry, but pregnant and lactating women and their children are
suffering the most. The stories we are hearing are harrowing.

“Mothers are being forced to watch helplessly as their children scream and
cry with hunger, while they are utterly powerless to do anything. One
mother who was so deprived of food and water that she was unable to
breastfeed told us of her horror at her baby slowly turning yellow from
malnourishment.

“Terrifyingly, things could get worse. There is no time to waste. Each day
hundreds of people in Gaza are already dying from the bombing – soon
hundreds will also die from hunger and disease. Only an immediate and
permanent ceasefire will prevent more entirely unnecessary deaths and allow
food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian aid on the enormous scale
required to enter Gaza.”
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