Most of the Gaza population, as well as their pregnant women, were displaced in recent weeks as a result of the Israeli military offensive in the southern area of ​​Rafah, which is now overcrowded and where expectant mothers face mortal risks.

It is estimated that in There are about 5,500 pregnant women on the Strip. who will give birth next month, according to the United Nations Population Fund, which is equivalent to about 180 births a day under minimal hygiene and safety conditions.

In Rafah, where the population has increased by 400 percent to 1.5 million, most have been displaced and crowded into health centers, schools and plastic stores. The Emirates Maternity Hospital is the only center for pregnant womenbut is on the verge of collapse.

“The Emirates hospital now sees three times as many births as before the war,” Pascal Coissart, the emergency coordinator for the Gaza Strip non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said on Wednesday. “Every place is overcrowded, people are living in tents, schools and hospitals,” he explained.

That’s why they only do the most urgent deliveries and are at risk of death, MSF said today, whose staff say they have witnessed women giving birth “in plastic tents and public toilets”, including women who have lost their newborns.

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“Children need care and attention. They need milk, diapers (…) They are innocent children; They have nothing to do with the war,” recalls Mona Dernuna, who recently gave birth to a baby in an Emirati hospital in Rafah after being forced to flee the northern city of Jabaliya and sheltering in a school for several days.

The Israeli army has been conducting a military offensive in the southern part of the enclave for several weeks. Other hospitals were opened there, such as Al-Amal in Khan Younis. surrounded by attacks and artillery fireleading to the death of a security officer today and at least four displaced people in the past 48 hours, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCR).

Nasser Hospital, also located in Khan Younis, has been under military siege for two weeks, the PRCS, the main body responsible for the situation, said today. rescue and transportation of the wounded in the Gaza Strip, leaving 100 health workers and some 7,000 displaced people, most of them children and women, living in “terror.”

(EFE)