Nourdine Jamal
A baby in Nuseirat refugee camp, November 2024.
Life is supposed to be filled with happiness and joy, especially after bringing a child into the world. But for many mothers in refugee camps in Gaza, that dream seems distant.
For more than a year, the people of Gaza have endured the devastating aftermath of a relentless war. Around two million Palestinians have been displaced, forced into a harsh and unimaginable reality, with many scattered along roadsides in makeshift tents. Among the most vulnerable are the newborns, who now face an even graver threat as winter closes in, tightening its icy grip on their fragile lives.
Cramped living conditions, inadequate clothing, rampant disease, and starvation all threaten the lives of children in Gaza. Between June and October, Doctors Without Borders treated nearly 11,000 children between the ages of one and five in emergency rooms for upper respiratory infections. Polio also returned to the Gaza Strip for the first time in twenty-five years this past August, when it afflicted a ten-month-old boy with paralysis. All of these hardships will be amplified as winter brings harsher weather to families struggling to stay warm and clean.
Healthcare for newborns and their mothers has become increasingly inaccessible in Gaza, and diapers and breastmilk substitutes are largely unaffordable or simply not available. The United Nations reports that mothers have had to undergo cesarean sections without anesthesia because of the shortage of aid. Palestinian mothers in Gaza, some of whom are taking care of children on their own because their husbands and other relatives have been killed by Israel, have spoken of the guilt they feel for bringing a child into a world full of danger and suffering.
I am currently seeking refuge in Nuseirat refugee camp, which is located in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) operates within the camp. The Israeli military has attacked the camp at least twice this month alone, killing dozens of Palestinians, including children, and wounding nearly 100 others. In September, Israel bombed a UNRWA school-turned-shelter—which housed around 12,000 internally displaced people—in Nuseirat, killing at least 34 people.
After a rainy day in early December, I walked around the Nuseirat camp to find out how refugees were dealing with the heavy rain, as most of the tents were not waterproof and they must have been drenched. I felt the refugees’ despair. While there are waterproof covers available for tents, they are quite expensive—beyond what refugees at the camp can afford. Many of the provisional tents are procured from a variety of materials such as scrap fabric, wood, and blankets. They are barely sufficient enough to sleep in, let alone withstand extreme conditions.
Later, I met the person in charge at Nuseirat, Ahmed, whose name we are withholding for his security. Ahmed, a man in his forties who has since fled the camp, told me, “We already were drowning and couldn’t sleep as every tent was leaking. I was sleeping and woke up with the raindrops from the ceiling of my leaky tent.” Asking him about a possible solution to protect the people in the camp from the freezing weather to come this winter, Ahmed said refugees within the camp demanded several times for the operating nongovernmental organizations and local authorities to provide them with waterproof tents to better shelter at least the babies and the elderly. But because Israel has blocked aid and deliveries into Gaza, all their attempts have been in vain.
After I spoke with Ahmed, he pointed out to a tent where Mona, a forcibly displaced woman in her thirties, was living with her three children, including a baby boy, in a rusty makeshift tent in the Nuseirat camp. We are also withholding her last name to protect her security.
Mona’s baby, about seven months old, was crawling barefoot on the muddy floor. She picked him up and said, “When I was in my ninth month [of] pregnancy in Gaza, I went to many hospitals there to give birth yet none [would] receive me as the hospitals were crammed with fatalities and injuries.”
“At last, I was lucky to have an experienced old woman who volunteer[ed] to help me give birth,” she continued. “My son crawls through the muddy ground. I can’t wait for nightfall to catch my breath. Since it rained yesterday, I struggled to care for my three children. It’s difficult managing the chaos that follows a stormy night, especially with the tent leaking.”
Thousands of mothers like Mona across the bereaved area are facing similar difficulties in protecting their children and babies. According to U.N. Women, the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, more than 177,000 women, including 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers, in the Gaza Strip face life-threatening health risks such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases, alongside famine. These risks could be minimized with the provision of shelter. Though the winter season has not officially commenced in Gaza, the intensive rain and flooding has already severely damaged makeshift tents.
Aid is necessary, but it is not coming. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, a million Palestinians in Gaza will need shelter aid before winter, but current aid from Israel is so limited that it would take more than two years for humanitarian agencies to deliver the necessary kits for tents and repairs.
In Gaza, sexual, reproductive, and maternal health services are hard, if not impossible, to obtain. The lack of adequate postnatal and pediatric care has contributed to already high infant and maternal mortality rates. Rana (last name withheld), another displaced mother in the western part of Nuseirat, shared her story.
“There’s no private toilet for me as a postpartum mother,” Rana said. She has to wait in line with everyone else, enduring discomfort and pain. Postpartum recovery is a complicated process no matter where someone lives, and mothers in Gaza are at an even higher risk of postpartum depression and postpartum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal death.
Rana’s newborn son, suffering from rashes, cries constantly. Diapers and baby clothes are now luxuries she can’t afford. “Pampers and clothes are way beyond our budget,” she said.
Another mother I spoke to was exhausted after giving birth via C-section. As if these hardships weren’t enough, the tent’s ceiling often leaks, leaving the mother and her baby vulnerable to the elements. She stood there, powerless, watching the rain drip down onto her newborn, unsure of what to do.