The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Palestine revealed that there are 50,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip who cannot obtain basic health services.

The international body added in a statement on X: “50,000 pregnant women in Gaza cannot access health services. 5,500 will give birth this month.”

“These women need urgent health care and protection,” it stressed, urging “all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”

The UNFPA’s representative for Palestine, Dominic Allen, said in an interview with CNN that “the health care system itself in Gaza is critical. It’s under attack, on the brink 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”, he added.

The UNFPA stressed that the “stories coming out of hospitals have been harrowing. One midwife at a maternity hospital in Gaza told Allen that since the beginning of the conflict, some midwives have been unable to even reach the maternity ward to provide assistance due to the unsafe environment.”

Allen stressed that “humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza must be allowed through. There must be a humanitarian corridor opened, and humanitarian law abided by. The pregnant women must therefore get access to those lifesaving health services.”