Gazan’s mother, Rana Salah, holds her one-month-old daughter Milana in her arms in a sweltering tent for displaced persons, and talks about the guilt she feels for bringing her child into a world of war and suffering.
Speaking at a camp in Deir al-Balah she said, “If it were up to me, I would not get pregnant during the war or give birth because life is completely different; we have never lived like this before. ” Central Gaza Strip.
“I had given birth twice before, and life was better and easier for me and the baby. Now, I feel I have been unfair to both myself and the baby because we deserve a better life than this.”
Due to complications with Salah’s pregnancy, Milana was born by caesarean section in a hospital tent. Due to the conflict the family has not been able to return home, but are moving from one tent to another.
Milana is one of about 20,000 children born in Gaza last year, according to UNICEF data.
The current war, a particularly deadly episode in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and nearly 1,000 others, according to Israeli data. 250 hostages were taken.
Israeli air and artillery strikes in response have reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble and killed more than 41,500 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
risk of infection
Salah is a fan of mixing it with cardboard and says the heat is bad for baby’s skin.
“Instead of returning to our homes, we keep moving from tent to tent… where diseases are rampant and the water is contaminated.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that postpartum services are significantly reduced in Gaza, so women who suffer complications have less access to the care they need, as do their children.
Rick Brennan, WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional emergencies director, said malnutrition is a threat to newborns, especially if their mothers are unable to breastfeed because there is no access to breast milk substitutes.
The displacement and constant moving is disruptive to the newborn and puts them at risk of infection, she said.
Manar Abu Jarad is living in a school shelter run by the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA). Their youngest daughter, Sahar, was born on 4 September via caesarean section. Her husband was killed in the war.
Hearing that she would need a cesarean section for delivery, she worried about how she would care for her other children.
“I already have three daughters. I started shouting… how can I carry the (water) bucket? How can I bathe my daughters? How can I help them and my husband is not with me Yes, he was martyred.”
The children rock little Sahar, wrapped in the cradle, next to Jarad.
She said, “I have reached the point where I can’t take responsibility for this girl… Thank God I got some help here.” She has borrowed as much as possible from her family and uses one diaper per day for the baby because she cannot afford more.
“I don’t have money to provide diapers or milk for him.”
Jarrad longs for the war to end and to return home, even if it is just a tent next to her former home.
“The important thing is to go home. The exhaustion we are experiencing here is too much, too much carrying buckets, too much mess in the bathroom. It’s really, really hard for us and really tiring.” There are diseases everywhere.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
