Dominic Allen, responsible for the Palestinian territories of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), warns of the situation of young children in Gaza, prey to famine and dehydration.
“Personally, I left Gaza this week terrified for the million women and girls in Gaza, for the 650,000 of childbearing age, and especially for the 180 women who give birth every day,” said Dominic Allen , during a video press conference from Jerusalem.
In particular, he was able to visit hospitals still providing maternity services in the north of the Gaza Strip, where more than 31,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. .
“Doctors say that they no longer see babies of normal size (…).
On the other hand, tragically, they are seeing more stillborn babies, more neonatal deaths,” he lamented, describing pregnant women “exhausted by fear, by the fact of having been displaced several times, by the hunger” and dehydration.
“These mothers should wrap their children in their arms, not in body bags.”
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He also highlighted the lack of anesthesia products for cesarean sections and denounced the refusal by the Israeli authorities of certain shipments of aid from UNFPA, evoking for example "kits for midwives" including flashlights. were removed, or the rejection of solar panels.
“A crisis of humanity”
“Doctors say that they no longer see babies of normal size (…).
On the other hand, tragically, they are seeing more stillborn babies, more neonatal deaths,” he lamented, describing pregnant women “exhausted by fear, by the fact of having been displaced several times, by the hunger” and dehydration.
“These mothers should wrap their children in their arms, not in body bags.”
“If I can paint a picture of what I saw, felt, heard while I was in Gaza (…) it is a nightmare bigger than a humanitarian crisis, it is a crisis of humanity “, he said.
“Worse than I can describe, than the photos show, than you can imagine.”
During the journey to the north of the Gaza Strip, “what I saw broke my heart,” he insisted, referring to the “indescribable emotion” in the eyes of the population.
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“All the people we saw, who we spoke to were emaciated, emaciated, they were hungry, they were all making this sign to ask for food,” he described, putting his hands to his mouth.
He also recounted passing a military checkpoint, where "a little boy who looked like he was 5 years old, was walking scared with his hands in the air, with his sister behind him, maybe two years old." older, carrying a white flag.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to one count. from AFP from official Israeli sources.