Fukhari, Gaza Strip – A rhythmic beep accompanies the mechanical ventilator as it breathes oxygen into the lungs of a premature baby. The thin tube extending from an oxygen tank pumps life into her fragile body, while a monitor tracks the faint beat of her heart.
Talia was born on October 6, a day before the latest Israeli war against the Gaza Strip began, following a Hamas attack on southern Israel. His skin has since lost the bluish tint that alarmed doctors at the Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, but his lungs are not yet strong enough to function on their own.
Hospitals in the Palestinian enclave warn that fuel reserves are running out due to Israel’s total blockade. Once the generators are shut down, newborns who rely on electric incubators to survive could die within minutes. Already, the fuel shortage has forced the only oncological hospital in Gaza to close its doors.
“There is great fear and anxiety about the lives that could be lost,” Asaad al-Nawajha, a specialist in pediatrics and neonatology in Nasser, told Al Jazeera. “We continually appeal to provide the fuel needed to operate the hospital’s generators and ensure the safety of children, the sick and the injured in Gaza. »
The hospital’s neonatal emergency unit cares for 10 children, some born up to four weeks earlier than their due date. The Gaza Ministry of Health estimates that 130 newborns currently rely on incubators across the Strip.
Samar Awad, the mother of Talia, 25, said the little girl was the child she “had dreamed of”, but giving birth to her had been far from idyllic.
“The doctor told me there was water in her lungs and she needed to be monitored, so I slept with her in the nursery,” Awad said. She couldn’t bring her daughter home.
The Gaza Strip has been the target of incessant bombardment since October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,400 people. Israeli bombs have since killed more than 8,700 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 3,000 children.
Since the Israeli government ordered the evacuation of the northern part of the enclave, the southern districts of Khan Younis and Rafah have been inundated with internally displaced families.
Airstrikes continue in the southern Gaza Strip despite Israel’s relocation order. Along with the heartbreaking fear that a bomb could kill her husband and three-year-old son as they huddle with relatives in Khan Younis, Awad is gripped by anxiety that the machine keeping her baby alive could to hush up.
“I’m terrified the hospital will run out of fuel,” she said. “I want this war to end and my daughter to be home with her brother and her father, who she misses very much. »
The United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, estimates that 50,000 pregnant women have been caught up in the conflict in Gaza, with more than 160 giving birth every day.
About 15 percent of births are predicted to result in complications. “These women need access to emergency obstetric care, and this becomes even more difficult with the arrival of trauma cases and the health system on its knees,” Dominic Allen, the representative of the UNFPA for the State of Palestine.
As a member of the UN, UNFPA called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. “There needs to be space and time to alleviate the human suffering we are witnessing in Gaza,” Allen said. “Humanitarian aid and supplies must be able to flow. »
At least a third of Gaza’s hospitals – 12 out of 35 – and almost two thirds of primary health care clinics – 46 out of 72 – have closed their doors since the start of hostilities due to damage or lack of fuel, increasing thus the pressure on the populations. the remaining health facilities that are still operational, the UN found.
Israel has allowed some aid trucks to enter via the Rafah land crossing with Egypt in recent days. But he banned the entry of fuel. It classifies diesel as a “dual-use” good that can be used for military as well as civilian purposes – although Israel closely monitors any fuel entering the Gaza Strip, right up to the final delivery point.
At al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest medical complex in the Palestinian enclave, medical staff described working conditions as “catastrophic.”
“We lack basic necessities and are facing a serious water shortage,” said Nasser Fouad Bulbul, head of premature and neonatal care services.
As fuel runs out, desalination plants have also closed, leaving hospitals unable to ensure even the most basic hygiene standards. The UN says only three liters of water per day are currently available per person in Gaza to meet basic health needs, including drinking, washing, cooking and flushing toilets – far lower than the daily amount recommended minimum of 50 liters.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gaza’s water supply facilities are currently pumping out five percent of their pre-war daily production, with infant mortality from dehydration posing a growing threat.
As resources dwindle, the needs are greater than ever. Bulbul said he had noticed an increase in premature births in recent weeks, which he attributed to “fear and terror.”
“We don’t know what to do as we face a serious shortage of medical supplies, ventilators and essential life-saving medicines,” he added.
Yasmine Ahmed, a midwife at al-Shifa, said most of the babies hospitalized were the only survivors from their families. “There is no one to take care of them and there is a risk of power cuts, which would (also) cause them to lose their lives,” she said.
For parents who long to hold their newborn in their arms, every day is filled with agonizing uncertainty. Lina Rabie, a 27-year-old mother from Khan Younis, struggled for years to conceive a child. His son was finally born a week before the start of the war.
“He was born in the first week of the eighth month (of gestation) and the doctors told me his life was in danger,” Rabie told Al Jazeera. Marwan, who takes his name from his paternal grandfather, has since been placed in an incubator at Nasser Hospital.
“Every second that the war continues, my heart burns with fear for my child and for all children,” Rabie said. “I hope the war ends and my son recovers, then I can hug him whenever I want.”
(Ruwaida Amer reported from the Gaza Strip and Federica Marsi from Milan, Italy)