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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Pregnant and lactating women in Gaza are starving and unable to feed their newborns <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Palestine News Network (PNN)</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">December 26, 2023<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lqmn7spy0" alt="1703563165-1705449975.png" width="417" height="334"><br><p><span>Gaza/ PNN / </span></p><p><span>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.</span></p><p><span>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.</span></p><p><span>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.</span></p><p><span>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.</span></p><p><span>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."</span></p><p><span>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.”</span></p><p><span>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.”</span></p><p><span>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.</span></p><p><span>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.</span></p><p><span>“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.</span></p><p><span>“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.”</span></p>
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