A mum-to-be has told of her hopes for her baby as she prepares to give birth in northern Gaza’s only functioning hospital after 15 gruelling months of war. Hundreds of pregnant women and new mums are receiving care at Al-Awda Hospital, which is running at around 50% capacity after two operating theatres and inpatient departments were damaged in attacks.
Images shared by charity ActionAid UK showed how crucial care is being delivered in damaged buildings for women including Iman, 27. After fleeing fighting in the north, she spent months sharing a tent with nine other people. Access to food, water and medical support was scarce. Iman said: “I had been praying for the war to end. My biggest fear was to deliver my baby in a tent.
“My health started to decline after my first trimester. It was due to the lack of food and medicine. Living in tents and the entire situation made me sick.”
When a ceasefire was announced between the Israeli forces and Hamas, Iman made her way back to northern Gaza on foot and found shelter at Al-Awda.
She added: “I just hope my baby leads a better life than the one we have. I want her to grow up in a happy and safe environment. I want my baby to live in a world without wars, fear, or suffering.”
Midwives at the hospital have seen an increase in miscarriages due to women experiencing malnutrition and the stress of war.
Thousands of homes have been reduced to rubble, leaving many people living in unsanitary conditions with access to private bathrooms.
Hospital midwife Maisoon said: “Pregnant women were deprived of many things such as vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy products, cheese and milk.
“This affected the weight of their newborns and [women’s] health. Most women became anaemic, which exposes them to many problems during childbirth.”
New mum Umm Fulan, who gave birth at Al-Awda Hospital after travelling to the facility from Al-Nuseirat camp, said: ”During my pregnancy, I suffered from malnutrition.
“Essential supplies were often unavailable. We became very weak due to a lack of proper nutrition.”
ActonAid said Al-Awda Hospital, run by one of the charity’s partner organisations, Al-Awda, is a “beacon of hope” in the besieged enclave — but aid blockages are putting vital services at risk.
Israel announced a halt on goods and supplies entering the Gaza Strip last week, which European foreign ministers have warned could violate humanitarian law.
Thousands of aid trucks had been arriving in Gaza each week under the ceasefire deal that started on January 19. But after its first phase expired last weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped aid, accusing Hamas of stealing it “to finance its terror machine”.
Dr Mohammed Salha, the hospital’s acting director, said that even before the latest blockade the amount of aid arriving was not enough to meet demand.
He added: “We have shortages of some medication and medical supplies and shortage of fuel. Now we only have 1,500 litres, which will last less than two days, because now we are running the hospital every day, 24 hours per day, using big generators.
“We need this flow of fuel and medication, medical supplies, to be continuous to not disturb our services.”
Dr Salha said more medical specialists were desperately needed — particularly orthopaedic surgeons, vascular surgeons and neurosurgeons — to support the hospital’s exhausted and depleted team.
He added: “We need to increase our capacity of beds to respond to these needs from the people in the north now. More than 300,000 people in the north come back from the south. Life here is very difficult.
“The Israeli occupation forces [have been] targeting the health system from the beginning of the aggression, and now you can’t imagine that in all the north of the Gaza Strip, the only hospital is Al-Awda Hospital that is providing [services]. Really, the people who live here live in a disaster.”
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of hiding command centres behind civilian infrastructure including hospitals and schools.