UITED NATIONS: Israel’s deadly military operations and the aid blockade have continued to add to daily fears and hardships being faced by those about to give birth in the devastated enclave.
That’s the message from the UN World Health Organization, WHO, which said that mothers are going into labour amid dire conditions, putting their health and their babies’ lives at risk.
It is now five weeks since Israeli authorities stopped all commercial and humanitarian relief supplies from reaching Gaza.
Medicines and other medical provisions “are rapidly running out”, with blood units and other supplies for maternal and child health at critically low levels, UN aid teams report.
Unexploded weapons are also a major threat across Gaza and have added to the hardships caused by the total ban on relief entering the Strip, said Luke Irving, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
“People are scared” and focusing on day-to-day survival, “how they stay fed, how they stay watered – this is the reality in Gaza at the moment,” he told UN News, an international media website.
At UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, UN chief Antonio Guterres issued a strong appeal for guaranteed aid access to the enclave.
He also repeated his call for a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and for the release of all hostages.
The Secretary-General highlighted how the truce between the warring parties had resulted in the release of hostages and the distribution of lifesaving aid.
Today however, “as aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened,” Guterres insisted.
Latest updates from UN agencies and partners confirmed that no aid has entered Gaza since 2 March. “Malnutrition, disease and other preventable conditions are expected to surge, increasing the risk of preventable child deaths,” UNICEF warned.
Mass displacement has also returned to the enclave, with a full two-thirds of the Gaza Strip now designated as “no-go” zones by the Israeli military or placed under displacement orders. At least 390,000 people have been forced to move in the past three weeks.
Escalating Israeli bombardment of Gaza between 3 and 8 April has killed 287 Palestinians and injured 912, according to Gazan health authorities.
Between 7 October 2023 and 8 April 2025, the same authorities say that at least 50,810 Palestinians have been killed and 115,688 Palestinians injured.
