Today is International Women’s Day. This year, it falls almost exactly five months after Israel began its indiscriminate bombardment and total siege of Gaza. In that time, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military attacks. The majority of those killed are women and children.
This International Women’s Day, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) stands in solidarity with every woman in Gaza who is struggling to survive the Israeli military’s unrelenting attacks and the subsequent humanitarian catastrophe. Constant displacement, physical stress and psychological trauma mean miscarriages have skyrocketed by 300%. Those who do make it to term face extremely limited maternity healthcare, with many women forced to give birth on dirty hospital floors, in tents, or outdoors in dangerously unhygienic conditions. Because of a lack of food, 80% of mothers are skipping meals to feed their children. Many are so malnourished, they cannot make the milk to breastfeed their newborn, while baby formula is impossible to find. So far, in the north, at least 16 children have already died from malnutrition and dehydration. Meanwhile, basic necessities for life and dignity have become exceptionally hard to locate, forcing women to resort to using tent scraps as sanitary pads.
Thanks to donations, MAP remains one of the only remaining NGOs on the ground in Gaza, including in the north.
Our team is working tirelessly to deliver vital, lifesaving aid, medical supplies and hygiene kits containing items like menstrual products and nappies to the women who have been displaced by Israel’s attacks.
But we cannot do this without your help. Please make a donation.
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In solidarity,
Marge Berer