Yasmine Awad’s children, “Malak, Khader, and Mustafa,” suffer from low weight and malnutrition due to the Israeli starvation policy (Al Jazeera)

Gaza

- Shaima Al-Ghoul was nine months pregnant when her house in the city of Rafah, south of Gaza, was bombed on February 12, resulting in the death of her husband and two sons, Muhammad and Janan, and she was injured by shrapnel in her stomach, reaching the fetus.

Al-Ghoul says that her husband, the martyr Abdullah Abu Jazar, had prepared dates, sweets, and a Christmas bag for her to rejoice in his expected baby before he was killed with his two children.

Shaima gave birth to a child whom she named Abdullah, after the name of his martyr father, as she told Al Jazeera Net, but he only lived for one day, as he died as a result of being hit by shrapnel, so the mother lost her three children with her husband.

The bereaved woman requested that her husband's grave be opened and that the martyred child be buried with his father in the same grave.

If the killer of the three children from the Al-Ghoul family in the previous story was an Israeli bomb, then the infant, Mahmoud Fattouh, was killed by a different weapon, which is “starvation.”

Abdullah Abu Jazar was martyred in the bombing of his house, two of his children were martyred, and the third died after his birth as a result of being hit by shrapnel from an occupation bomb (Al Jazeera)

Early weaning

Nidaa Fattouh, the mother of the infant, “Mahmoud,” tells Al Jazeera Net the details of the story that began after his birth in the first week of last January in Gaza City, as she was unable to breastfeed him due to the malnutrition she suffered from due to the lack of food, and the difficult psychological conditions that she experienced. She suffered from it as a result of the Israeli war, which forced her to wean him early.

The mother tried to resort to powdered milk, but it was completely cut off from pharmacies and markets due to the Israeli siege and the absence of other alternatives, causing the child to suffer from malnutrition and dehydration.

On February 22, Fattouh noticed a noticeable change in her son’s face and health, as he suffered from severe cold and dehydration.

The child's parents quickly transferred him to Al-Shifa Hospital, where a nurse conducted an urgent examination on him, and it was found that he was suffering from "severe dehydration and cold. He brought him a heater and a carton of milk, but he did not respond to treatment and died two hours later."

In a similar context, Palestinian Yasmine Awad, mother of triplets, says that they suffer from malnutrition due to the Israeli starvation policy, and that she fears for their lives.

Awad was residing in Gaza City, before the occupation army forced her to move with her children (Malak, Khader, and Mustafa) to the center of the Strip, last week.

While in Gaza City, Awad and her children suffered greatly from the Israeli starvation policy.

She told Al Jazeera Net, "My twin children are 8 months old, but their appearance does not indicate that. People believe that they are only 4 months old. They are now supposed to start speaking, and be able to sit and learn to walk, but they are unable to do so due to malnutrition."

Awad was unable to breastfeed her children due to the lack of food she was eating. She added, "They weaned themselves and stopped breastfeeding due to the lack of milk, and we could not find powdered milk for them."

According to the government media office in the Gaza Strip, since the beginning of its brutal attack on the Strip on October 7, the occupation army has killed more than 14,000 children, out of more than 32,000 Palestinians who are the total victims of the ongoing aggression.

As for the Israeli starvation policy, the office reported in its latest update that 28 children were martyred due to starvation and malnutrition.

Israel is practicing a deliberate starvation policy against the residents of the Gaza Strip, especially in its northern areas, which prompted the International Court of Justice, last Thursday, to order Tel Aviv to take all necessary measures to ensure the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza to avoid famine.

Generation of female martyrs

Dr. Fadia Malhis, a consultant in obstetrics and gynecology at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, tells horrific stories of childbirth operations that she was forced to perform on women who were killed by the occupation army in an attempt to save their fetuses.

Among these accounts is a story that happened before the occupation army’s final storming of Al-Shifa Hospital, about a woman from the Al-Jamasi family. She went into labor at 1 p.m., so her husband and his brother carried her in a car towards the hospital, but the occupation planes bombed them, which led to the martyrdom of the three.

Immediately after the pregnant woman arrived at the hospital, Dr. Malhis quickly opened her stomach, took out the child, and performed a heart resuscitation procedure, which was successful.

However, some fragments that penetrated his chest and kidney, and exited from his back, caused internal bleeding, which led to his death.

Malhis told Al Jazeera Net a similar story, where a nine-month-pregnant woman arrived at the hospital. She was martyred in an Israeli raid. The abdomen was opened and the child was taken out, but he was dead, since more than 8 minutes had passed since the mother’s death.

In two different cases, Malhis dealt with two women, the first was six months pregnant, and the second was seven months pregnant, and they were exposed to Israeli bombing, which caused the death of their fetuses in their wombs, which forced her to abort the two women in order to save their lives.

Children in Gaza live in harsh conditions and are exposed to the risk of death due to the Israeli occupation policies (Al Jazeera)

Hunger and misery

Malhis points out that pregnant women, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, suffer greatly due to poor medical services provided to them.

Remember that Al-Shifa Medical Complex (the largest hospital in the Strip), before it was stormed by the occupation army (from last March 18 until now), provided only simple medical services to the public, due to its previous destruction at the hands of Israel.

Malhis explains some of the suffering of pregnant women, saying, "There are 60,000 pregnant women, all of whom do not receive proper medical care, nor do they receive medicines and vitamins. During childbirth, they are exposed to great risks such as bleeding, birth complications, and the risk of death, especially in northern Gaza."

The breastfeeding mother also suffers from “spreading famine and food scarcity, which is reflected in her health, as she suffered while pregnant from a lack of good medical care, spent childbirth without health care, and will complete her breastfeeding period without safe and varied food, and all of this reflects negatively on the child.”

It also indicates that the poor psychological state of the breastfeeding Palestinian mother in Gaza, as a result of the war, causes the cessation of milk production, which may cause the death of children due to the absence of the artificial alternative, “powdered milk,” which is missing in pharmacies and markets.

Malhis concludes her speech by saying, "The women of Gaza are now like prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor, from lighting fires to cook, being exposed to smoke damage, carrying heavy objects, transporting water, and taking care of the family, amidst bombing, fear, and alarm, and this has a negative impact on their health and the health of their children."

Source: Al Jazeera