ANKARA: The Palestinian Red Crescent said Saturday that 180 women give birth every day in Gaza under "dangerous" and "inhumane" conditions due to Israeli attacks and occupation.
"Many of them are unable to reach hospitals due to being in besieged areas, with the Israeli forces preventing ambulances from reaching them," Anadolu Agency quoted the organisation as saying in a statement.
To emphasise the severity of the situation, the humanitarian organisation shared recordings on X.
The recordings documented telephone conversations between health teams and the family of a pregnant woman who could not reach a hospital in time to give birth in the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian Red Crescent doctor guides and assists the family in the audio recordings, aiming to facilitate a safe home delivery for the woman who was in conversation with her sister.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative for Palestine, Dominic Allen, said in a virtual news conference Saturday from Jerusalem that 18,000 births occurred in Gaza in the last 100 days.
He noted that UNFPA could not provide sufficient supplies and the situation in hospitals is dire.
Allen highlighted that 5,500 women are expected to give birth in the coming months and he expressed concern for their struggles with water scarcity, food shortages and limited access to treatment.
He emphasised the deadly risks involved and underscored the urgency of preventing such tragedies.
UNFPA announced on Dec 17 that 45,000 pregnant and 68,000 lactating women in Gaza are at risk of anaemia, bleeding and even death.
The Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, said in a Jan 1 statement that due to not meeting the needs of 50,000 pregnant women in centres accommodating those displaced by attacks in the Gaza Strip, patients are facing inadequate nutrition and health problems.
Al-Qudra urgently called on UN-affiliated agencies to intervene to rescue children and pregnant women from the situation. --BERNAMA-ANADOLU