50,000 pregnant women in Gaza unable to obtain basic health services: UNFPA

GAZA CITY (Palestine): The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that there are 50,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip who are unable to access basic health services.

The UN agency stated that these expectant mothers are struggling to receive essential maternal healthcare, and approximately 5,500 of them are expected to give birth this month.

Dominic Allen, the UNFPA's representative for Palestine, emphasised that the healthcare system in Gaza is under severe strain and is teetering on the edge of collapse.

"Imagine going through that process in those final stages and your last trimester before giving birth, with possible complications, without clothing, without hygiene, support and not sure about what the next day, next hour, next minute will bring for themselves and for their unborn child," Anadolu Agency reported as Allen saying to CNN.

Allen highlighted the distressing accounts emerging from hospitals, revealing that some midwives were unable to reach the maternity ward to offer assistance due to the hazardous conditions.

He also urged for the facilitation of access to aid and humanitarian supplies in the enclave.

The situation in the Gaza Strip has grown increasingly dire, with Israel imposing a stringent and inhumane blockade on its residents, coupled with forceful attempts to relocate them to the southern part of the peninsula.

-- BERNAMA