Newborns at Risk as 50,000 Pregnant, Breastfeeding Women Starve in Gaza
The UNFPA called for life-saving aid to be allowed into the besieged enclave, as the situation “is preventable.”
Up to 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip are facing severe hunger, with devastating consequences for newborns, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday.
These women “haven’t eaten for days”, and babies “are born too soon, too small,” the UNFPA said on X.
50,000 pregnant & breastfeeding women in #Gaza haven’t eaten for days.
Babies are born too soon, too small.
Mothers are too malnourished to breastfeed — & formula is gone.
Newborns are at risk of death or lifelong health issues.
This is preventable. #OpenUpGaza Let aid in. pic.twitter.com/WiGmv1FGUC
— UNFPA Arab States (@UNFPA_ASRO) July 8, 2025
“Mothers are too malnourished to breastfeed — & formula is gone. Newborns are at risk of death or lifelong health issues,” the agency added.
The UNFPA called for life-saving aid to be allowed into the besieged enclave, as the situation “is preventable.”
Aid Stuck in Warehouses
According to UN agencies, humanitarian access to Gaza remains restricted, worsening the crisis for vulnerable populations, including women and children.
“The people in Gaza desperately need humanitarian aid, blocked by Israeli Authorities for over 4 months,” the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday.
The people in #Gaza desperately need humanitarian aid, blocked by Israeli Authorities for over 4 months.
Allow UNRWA to deliver lifesaving supplies.
Aid deliveries and distribution must be at scale and safe.
In Gaza, this can be done through the United Nations including UNRWA.… pic.twitter.com/ylr1n7AGP7
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 9, 2025
In a video on X, UNRWA shared footage of a warehouse in Egypt being used “to store shelter items, hygiene items, that are so desperately needed.”
Sam Rose, Acting Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, said “almost three-quarters of a million people” have been displaced in Gaza since March, adding that they “have nothing.”
Israel hasn’t allowed UNRWA humanitarian aid into Gaza for over four months, according to the UN agency.
Lack of Basics, Fuel
The UNRWA warehouse, Rose pointed out, was storing 800,000 blankets, “enough blankets for every single family in Gaza.”
He also highlighted mattresses, tarpaulins, hygiene items, soap and shampoo, saying these were “real basics that the people of Gaza have been starved of for so, so long.”
BREAKING | Urgent fuel entry is needed to save newborns amongst other patients in Gaza. They lie in incubators that could stop working at any moment as hospitals, including al-Helou, the only government facility still providing neonatal care, run out of fuel.
The machines… pic.twitter.com/dkb4teqafV
— Translating Falasteen (Palestine) (@translatingpal) July 9, 2025
Meanwhile, UNRWA said on Wednesday that over 90 percent of families “lack safe dring water as fuel shortages cripple water systems.”
“Time is running out for the people in Gaza,” UNRWA warned, as well as food and medicine, while “safe places have run out.”
It called for a “Ceasefire Now!” and the lifting of the siege on Gaza.
Lift the siege on #Gaza.#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/UeU2GSt6lW
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 7, 2025
Over 57,000 Killed
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
Milk for Kittens, No Bread for Us in Gaza – A Place of Generosity
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 57,000, wounding more than 136,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
‘Cemeteries of Memory’ – Childhood Buried beneath Gaza Rubble
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(PC, Anadolu)
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