News / Palestine

Dead before birth: Gaza women 'delivering stillborn children' amid looming famine

Thursday, 07 March 2024 11:58 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 08 March 2024 12:01 AM ]

Rania Abu Anza and others mourn as they receive the bodies of victims of an Israeli strike, in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza Strip, on March 3, 2023.

An international aid organization says many women in the Gaza Strip, which is enduring a genocidal Israeli war and siege, are giving birth to stillborn children as famine stalks the territory.

"There are many operations that have been performed, like caesarean sections to remove fetuses, [which] died due to malnutrition among women," ActionAid International said in a statement on Thursday.

"More than 95% of women [who] come to the hospital and undergo the necessary medical examinations [are suffering] from anemia," the statement added.

Gaza is on the verge of all-out famine amid the war and concomitant siege that has reduced the flow of water, food, electricity, and medicine into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.

Gaza famine 'almost inevitable,' UN warns

The UN says in the absence of any changes in Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, the coastal sliver is on course to experience all-out famine.

ActionAid said one-quarter of Gaza’s 2.4-million-strong population were one step away from famine, warning that the territory's already extremely strained humanitarian system was about to face total collapse.

"Over the last week, aid distributions across Gaza have come under attack, claiming lives while further endangering aid operations," the organization said.

"As a result of the growing attacks on paramedics in Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced last week that it was suspending its medical missions across the Strip," it added.

"On top of this, UNRWA, the largest aid agency in Gaza, is facing an uncertain future after seeing its budget severely slashed as many large donors and donor nations have withdrawn their financial support."

The mass abandonment of the agency followed Israeli accusations that 12 UNRWA employees had been involved in an October 7 operation by Gaza's resistance groups against the occupied territories, after which Israel launched the war.