The War of Israel at 15 months against Gaza, as well as severe restrictions which it imposed on the flow of humanitarian aid and the attacks of the Israeli forces against health establishments and the targeting of health workers, led to a “Potentially deadly danger” for pregnant women and babies, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report.
Despite the current ceasefire, the precarious conditions in which the women of Gaza give birth are unlikely to improve, the group noted in the report published on Tuesday, as Israeli legislation targeting the Association of Rescue and United Nations Works for Palestinian Refugees (UNSWA) and taking the effect this week should seriously limit humanitarian aid delivery to devastated territory.
The group noted that the women of Gaza were precipitated outside overcrowded hospitals, sometimes a few hours after childbirth, in order to make room for war victims. Newborn care was also seriously affected, a doctor at the Al-Helal al-Emirati Maître Hospital de Rafah saying that the establishment had so few incubators and so many premature babies that doctors were forced to put “Four or five babies in an incubator”.
“Most of them do not survive,” added the doctor.
Several babies died of the lack of shelters in the middle of freezing temperatures.
In the 56 -page report, HRW concluded that Israel – as a power occupying in Gaza – violated the rights of pregnant women and girls, including the right to care during pregnancy, childbirth and Postpartum period, as well as the right to care for newborns.
The group also stressed that two laws adopted by the Israeli Knesset last year and which took effect on Tuesday threaten to “exacerbate more the damage to maternal and newborn health”. The Bills, which prevent the Urfwa from operating in Israel and occupied Jerusalem-Est and the Israeli government of contact with the agency, actually prevent UNRWA from obtaining permits for its staff and providing essential assistance to Gaza.
Belkis Wille, director of conflicts, conflict and weapons of the HRW, told Tel Aviv Tribune that “despite the fact that the ceasefire could offer the health system to Gaza the opportunity to start to be restored, due UNRWA operations, the reality is that these coming weeks can lead to pregnant women and newborns who suffer even more than they have already done. “
“The provisions of the ceasefire do not really meet the important needs that are described in the report,” added Wille.
According to the report, this month, obstetric and emergency newborn care is only available in seven of the 18 partially functional hospitals in Gaza, four of the 11 fields in the field and a community health center.
All medical installations operating in Gaza are faced with “unsanitary and overcrowded conditions” and serious shortages of essential health supplies, including drugs and vaccines. And the medical workers, “hungry, overworked and sometimes under military attack”, rush to take care of the victims of attacks while approaching countless cases of water origin and other transmitted diseases, adds the report.
HRW conducted interviews with pregnant women while living in Gaza during the war, Gaza medical workers and international medical staff working with humanitarian organizations and international agencies operating in Gaza.
Interviews paint a horrible table of the impact of war on access to basic care during pregnancy and birth.
Little information is available on the survival rate of newborns or the number of women with serious complications or to die during pregnancy, birth or postpartum, HRW notes. But the group indicates that testimonies of maternity health experts who indicated that the miscarriage rate in Gaza had increased up to 300% since the start of the war on October 7, 2023. It also stressed that the UN reports that at least eight infants and newborns died of hypothermia due to the lack of basic shelters.
The War of Israel led to an unprecedented displacement of approximately 90% of the residents of Gaza, many of whom have been moved several times. This prevented pregnant women from accessing healthy health services, according to the report, noting that mothers and newborns did not have access to postnatal care.
At the end of last year, Human Rights Watch concluded in a different report that Israel committed “genocide acts” by refusing drinking water to the Palestinians in Gaza. He also found that the use by Israel of “famine as a method of war” has led to severe food insecurity.
Pregnant women were particularly affected by lack of access to food and water, with essential consequences for their own health and for fetal development. Many pregnant women have reported dehydration or could not wash, added the report.
“The blatant and repeated violations of Israeli authorities in international humanitarian law and human rights law in Gaza have had a particular and acute impact on pregnant women and girls and newborns,” said Wille. “The ceasefire alone did not end these horrible conditions. Governments should press Israel to urgently ensure that the needs of pregnant women and girls, newborns and other health care requirements are satisfied. »»
