Week after week, heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea, has continued across most of the Gaza Strip.
According to the Ministry of Health, at least 21,320 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7th, about 70% of whom are women and children. Nearly 2 million people have been displaced from their homes, forced to live in extremely overcrowded and unsanitary shelters. The Ministry of Health says that 50% of pregnant women in the shelters suffer from thirst and malnutrition, and there is a lack of health care and vaccinations for newborns.
The suffering is unimaginable, yet it is all too real.
Many of those bearing witness to the seemingly endless death and misery are frontline healthcare workers – including those delivering sexual and reproductive healthcare.
But they, too, are at risk of being killed just for doing their jobs.
Israel continues to bombard Gaza’s health facilities and residential areas, despite mounting international pressure for a ceasefire – something IPPF and many other humanitarian organisations have been demanding for months.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there have been more than 200 Israeli attacks on hospitals and ambulances since Oct. 7, with many medical workers detained during Israeli raids. At least 300 healthcare workers have been reported killed, according to the UN. This is more than the total number of health worker deaths recorded across all countries in conflict last year, and in any single year since 2016.
Staff at IPPF’s local member association, the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association (PFPPA), are among the heroic healthcare workers in Gaza that continue to provide care as best they can in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. We fear for their safety – and that of the 2.3 million civilians in Gaza – every single day.
In their own words, PFPPA and other health workers describe what it’s like to provide care under bombardment and blockade in Gaza and in the West Bank – offering glimpses of terror, devastation, and even some hope.
Wafa Abu Hasheish, health worker
“The health situation for women is deteriorating every day that goes by. Menstrual pads are almost totally unobtainable. Everyone keeps asking me to find them, but it’s difficult. I don’t know how to communicate with anyone; there is no internet or phone connection. Women are using pieces of cloth and placing under them plastic bags to avoid leakages on their clothing. At times, if they can find baby diapers they use them after cutting them into pieces. Women are feeling humiliated and are depressed for being forced to take such actions.
Still, whether from my home, in shelters or now where I am displaced in a home with 50 others, I continue to provide daily services to women including treating reproductive infections, urinary tract infections, anemia, and other diseases. I have provided care to at least 480 women.”
