- The bloodbath in Gaza continues to have a dire effect on women and children.
- The psychological trauma experienced by Gazan children as young as 5 has led them to say that they would prefer to die.
The precarious mental state, relentless airstrikes, and pervasive fear endured by Palestinian women in Gaza are leading to devastating outcomes, including pregnant women miscarrying their babies, including unborn children. This is a result of the direct heinous assaults carried out by Israeli occupation forces.
One pregnant woman living in the Gaza strip, preferred to conceal her identity and be called Layla. She articulated, “What worries me most is falling in love with life, amid all the death, once I hold my baby”.
‘Doctors without Borders’ has found that the humanitarian catastrophe continuing in Gaza has tragically deprived pregnant women of essential medical care for months, leaving them without access to functional delivery facilities. Instead, they are forced to give birth in makeshift plastic tents and public buildings, the charity confirm.
Moreover, they assert that within medical circles, a somber new acronym, WCNSF (wounded child, no surviving family), has emerged, capturing the heartbreaking reality faced by innocent victims of this conflict.
As the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians continues unabated, frontline workers emphasise that surviving children endure both physical and psychological wounds. These include visible scars from trauma and the invisible toll of displacement, ongoing fear, and witnessing the horrors of their families torn apart.
The charity assert:
‘Children who survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries but the invisible ones too-those of repeated displacement, constant fear, and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes. These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us they would prefer to die’.
