ActionAid: Expectant mothers in Gaza facing food scarcity due to Israel’s genocide war

Gaza Strip (QNN)- International humanitarian organization ActionAid has warned that pregnant women and new mothers in the besieged Gaza Strip are facing malnutrition amid severe food shortages as the Israeli genocide war on Gaza enters its 10th month.

“Pregnant women in Gaza are going hungry amid severe food shortages, as the whole territory remains at high risk of famine,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mothers who have recently given birth at Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, which is run by ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda, said they struggled to find anything to eat during their pregnancies, with fruit and vegetables completely unavailable.

Dr Adnan Radi, a Consultant and Head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Al-Awda Hospital, said: “Pregnant women are often unable to find anything to eat at all, and nutritional supplements that we used to give to pregnant women are unfortunately not available. Women do not get any food at all; no vitamins, minerals, iron, fruit, vegetables, or anything.”

“These women suffer so much from the effects of war; its destruction, problems, and complications. Now, to add to this suffering, [there is] the problem of hunger, and [the approaching] famine…This is in addition to the problems that pregnant women already suffer from, such as lack of primary care, lack of [medical] follow-up for pregnant women, a sharp increase in the rate of [high-risk] pregnancies, complications [relating to] premature birth, an increase in miscarriages and problems such as infections, sepsis, bleeding, and others.”

Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine said: “Pregnant women need a varied, nutritious diet to keep themselves and their babies healthy, but many women in Gaza have nothing to eat at all. The lack of food is having a major impact on their ability to give birth safely and to breastfeed their newborn babies, many of whom are born dangerously underweight.”

“After nine months of this crisis, the humanitarian situation is bleak. The displacement of up to a quarter of a million people from Khan Younis will only add further to the catastrophe. Gaza urgently needs more aid and a permanent ceasefire, now.”

For over nine months, the Israeli occupation has imposed a tight siege on the Gaza Strip, severely limiting the flow of life-saving essential food and medical items.

As a part of a policy that amounts to collective punishment of civilians, the Israeli occupation has used starvation of the population as a weapon of war.

According to the latest assessment of the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), released on June 25, 96% of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity through September, while 22%, over 495,000 people, face catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.

The IPC report indicated that 96% of the population faces extreme levels of hunger in the Gaza Strip.