No one wants to bring children into the world with a death sentence marked on their destiny from the moment of conception. How can a mother be handed her dead baby, killed by a cowardly war in which those who direct the murder do not stain their hands or their conscience with blood?
The ground shook with the bombing, bullets rained down on lifeless bodies and on the crowd fleeing without knowing—or perhaps knowing—that wherever they went, they would still be targets of Zionism and its barbarism.
Last August, the Zeitoun neighborhood, the largest and most densely populated in Gaza City, experienced an unprecedented massacre. In the midst of this irreparable crime, a woman went into labor at only seven months pregnant. She was assisted by a friend, one of more than 125 trained and equipped midwives in the coastal enclave, according to data from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
In the midst of the siege, without gloves or tools, Sahar, the midwife, heated a knife over a fire and used it to cut the newborn's umbilical cord, while perfumed handkerchiefs served as bandages. She told UNFPA about it.
Like her friend, some 15 women give birth there every week outside of health centers, putting both mother and baby at risk, as they are not always lucky enough to come out of it alive or unharmed.
In this regard, the Fund has revealed that around 130 children are born every day in Gaza, of whom one in five is premature or suffers from other complications, such as low birth weight.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Fara, director of the Pediatrics and Maternity Center at the Nasser Medical Complex, emphasized that premature and low birth weight babies currently account for between 60% and 70% of newborns. He recalled that before October 2023, when the attacks began, the figure was 20%.
"Premature births, miscarriages, and stillbirths are on the rise among pregnant women and new mothers in Gaza, as they are weakened by extreme hunger—in many cases famine—severe malnutrition, exhaustion, and constant fear caused by displacement and bombing," UNFPA also says.
Furthermore, limited access to health services and overburdened facilities due to Israel's constant attacks have left Palestinians with almost no options. This is the case at the aforementioned Nasser Medical Complex, where up to three babies share a single incubator, and the pediatric departments receive approximately 1,000 cases a day, in an institution that only has 40 beds for that area.
The killing of civilians is now one of the key factors in the palpable demographic change in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing is undoubtedly the ultimate goal of the ongoing attacks. And what better way—the Zionist criminals will say—to achieve that goal than to uproot life as soon as it comes into the world?
