In Gaza today, famine is no longer a dark threat - it has set in. For pregnant and breastfeeding women and their newborns, it is a possible death sentence.
Famine strips people of dignity before it strips them of life. For mothers in Gaza, it means being forced to give birth while malnourished, exhausted and at heightened risk of death. It means their babies are born too small, too weak or too early to survive. It means mothers unable to breastfeed because they, too, are starving. And it forces mothers to make the impossible choice between which of their children to feed, and which must be left to perish.
Famine in Gaza is claiming lives every day. The figures are staggering, but behind them are individuals who once led promising lives.
More than 40 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza are severely malnourished. The numbers are projected to continue to rise. The consequences are all too visible: One in five babies are born prematurely or underweight. One in seven newborns in need of emergency neonatal care because of severe complications.
The children who survive will be marked by lasting scars: stunting, developmental delays, weakened immunity, and increased risk of chronic disease in adulthood. Famine today will shape the health prospects of Palestinians for generations.
UNFPA teams, alongside our partners, are doing everything possible: Supporting midwives, deploying mobile maternity units, and delivering medicines, safe birthing kits and dignity kits - when our aid is let in. These efforts have been thwarted by persistent, deliberate obstruction; by relentless attacks on health facilities forcing the closure of maternity services; and by ongoing attacks on civilians - including on humanitarians and health workers.
When hospitals and the people in them are attacked, when life-saving food and medicine are blocked, when women risk being bombed to seek even the most basic care, humanitarians cannot do their jobs of saving lives.
The UN has warned of the risks of famine for months in succession. This famine was entirely predictable and preventable. Leaders must fulfil their obligations to protect civilians in conflict and ensure aid reaches people in need.
No woman should be forced to give birth in famine conditions. No child should begin life starving. Every day of inaction condemns more mothers and newborns to suffering. The suffering, the starving must end now.
