UN estimates 50,000 pregnant women in besieged Gaza Strip
Dec 25, 2023
Tel Aviv [Israel], December 25: The United Nations estimates that around 50,000 pregnant women are currently living in the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip.
There are more than 180 births every day, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced on Sunday.
The agency said that doctors and midwives are doing everything possible to provide care for newborn babies and high-risk pregnant women at the seven remaining operational UNRWA health centres. The agency had 22 health centres at the beginning of the war on October 7, when Hamas and other groups launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil.
Conditions for civilians in the Gaza Strip have become dire, with very limited supplies and people forced to camp in makeshift tents in the open. The weather has turned increasingly bad, while Israeli strikes continue.
According to the UN, more than 1.9 million people in the Gaza Strip - or about 85 percent of the population - are now internally displaced. Many of them have sought shelter in overcrowded UNRWA facilities.
"The decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). "But in the face of constant insecurity and inflows of wounded patients, we see doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and more continue striving to save lives." "And we persist in calling for a ceasefire now," Ghebreyesus added. (DPA)
Source: Qatar Tribune
