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CARE Calls on Israel to Lift Aid Blockage Into Gaza

CrossFireArabia
March 6, 2025

By Deepmala Mahla

It has been close to a week since Israel’s extremely concerning March 2 decision to stop aid from entering Gaza – a decision that is having dire consequences for a population who have already endured 15 months of unimaginable suffering.

Trucks stocked with CARE food parcels, medical supplies, and shelter items – which were scheduled to arrive over the next weeks – are not reaching Gaza.

It has been close to a week since Israel’s extremely concerning decision to stop aid from entering Gaza.

Trucks stocked with CARE food parcels, medical supplies, and shelter items are not reaching Gaza. https://t.co/Rra4UIZuPr
— CARE (care.org) (@CARE) March 6, 2025

Meanwhile, our current supply of medical provisions will allow us to be fully operational for one month only, after which we will be forced to scale back our medical services. Our ability to supply our local partners will also be impacted should the aid suspension continue.

Israel is required under international humanitarian law to facilitate access of aid into and across all areas of Gaza. CARE and all humanitarian actors call for compliance with this law wherever we work. It saves and protects the lives of women, children, and families in times of conflict – from Sudan to Syria. Humanitarian assistance for civilians such as food, medicine, and other life-saving supplies should not be withheld as a bargaining chip within a conflict.

Families are already living in makeshift shelters on the ruins of their homes and are still battling exposure to the basic elements of cold and hunger. It is critical that aid deliveries continue while a sustained cease fire is negotiated towards a lasting peace and the return of hostages.

The writer is the Chief Humanitarian Officer of CARE International

Features

Birth Under Bombs: 9 Months of Hell

CrossFireArabia
July 12, 2024

Imagine being pregnant and knowing you are three times more likely to miscarry.
Imagine being pregnant and knowing you are three times more likely to die in childbirth.
Imagine being pregnant and experiencing the fear of death every single day.
Imagine being pregnant and feeling like the world has completely forgotten you.

This is the hell pregnant women in Gaza are living through every day.

In the 9 months, or 40 weeks, that the violence in Gaza has now raged on, women there have conceived, miscarried, and birthed their babies. Instead of spending 9 months safely and hopefully preparing for the birth of their baby, these women have spent the entirety of their pregnancy in constant fear.

Pregnant women in #Gaza are living through hell every day. 9 months into this war, the risks of miscarriage and deaths during childbirth have increased threefold. Pregnant women and their babies deserve to live. We need a #CeasefireNow.
Read: https://t.co/bZvU94xuuY pic.twitter.com/sWe9eT5wzW
— CARE International (@CAREGlobal) July 11, 2024

22-year-old Diana discovered she was pregnant shortly after violence escalated last October and gave birth to her son, Yaman, under intense bombing and gunfire late last week.

“I had a difficult labour. I was so frightened as the bombing was intense and didn’t stop even for a minute. My mother was so afraid for me and the baby – she prayed and prayed that we’d still be alive by dawn.

Pregnant women in #Gaza are 3 times more likely to miscarry since the start of the war. Thousands are losing their babies or giving birth in rubble.

We need the new UK Govt to put women & girls at the heart of its Gaza response. #CeasefireNOW

Read more: https://t.co/jtvvBAdH2X pic.twitter.com/97rTkLrskW
— CARE International UK (@careintuk) July 10, 2024

“I gave birth to my son, Yaman at about 2am. There was no special care for the baby when he was born, and he was not fully examined. He has jaundice now which has affected his brain.”

Diana is not alone. Over 50,000 women are currently pregnant in Gaza. Around 180 are due to give birth today, but not all of them will make it that far. Pregnant women in Gaza have experienced so much trauma since October that they are three times more likely to miscarry than they were before.

50,000 women are currently pregnant in #Gaza. 180 are due to give birth today. It's been 9 months of hell.

We need the new UK Government to put women & girls at the heart of its response in Gaza. We need a #CeasefireNOW.

Read more: https://t.co/jtvvBAdH2X pic.twitter.com/KbeyJRWWsu
— CARE International UK (@careintuk) July 8, 2024

For those who defy the odds and manage to carry their pregnancy to full-term, the likelihood is they will be forced to give birth in a tent, a temporary shelter, or even in the streets amid rubble. They will do this without painkillers, while bombs continue to drop around them, knowing that they are now three times more likely to die giving birth.

Expressing concern on forgetting women and their experiences in this conflict, Hiba Al Hejazi, CARE’s Regional Advocacy Advisor for the MENA Region said: “It’s abhorrent that women, and their experiences in this conflict, have largely been forgotten.

Mudalala was one month pregnant when the war began, nine months ago. She spent her pregnancy on the move, with no safety and in harsh sanitary conditions.

Some 50,000 babies have been born in war-torn #Gaza, often in traumatic and undignified conditions, says @SavetheChildren. pic.twitter.com/FqanbjSWNy
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 11, 2024

The international community has to step up and put them front and centre. We need a gendered response to this conflict, one that prioritises the needs and experiences of women, and funds the women leading their communities through crisis. We urgently need governments to use their diplomatic powers and bring an end to a conflict that is destroying lives, many that have only just begun.”

CARE International’s Palestinian partner in Gaza, Juzoor, has set up clinics offering ante- and post-natal care, and mobilised volunteers from its network of midwives to assist vulnerable women to deliver births safely in their shelters with specialised equipment. CARE has also distributed 5,500 Baby Kits, containing essential products such as baby clothes and sterilising wipes for pregnant mothers, many of whom have lost everything.

This is an article reproduced CARE International on the situation of pregnant women in Gaza. For media inquiries, please contact globalmedia@careinternational.org.