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STORY: UNFPA / GAZA MATERNITY HOSPITAL
TRT: 5:59
SOURCE: UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNFPA ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 28 FEBRUARY 2024, AL-HELAL AL-EMIRATI MATERNITY HOSPITAL, RAFAH, GAZA
1. Med shot, three babies in a bed
2. Close up, three babies in a bed
3. Close up, a baby holding an oxygen tube
4. Close up, a baby
5. Med shot, a baby
6. Close up, a health worker holding a baby
7. Med shot, a health worker feeding a baby
8. Med shot, sign of NICU
9. SOUNDBITE(Arabic) Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer, Pediatric Specialist at the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital:
“Unfortunately, the support we have received so far is inadequate and fails to cover even a fraction of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit's needs.”
10. SOUNDBITE(Arabic) Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer:
“As you can see, it’s very crowded, with approximately three or four babies per incubator. This is unacceptable anywhere in the world; no incubator should accommodate more than one baby, let alone three or four. Also, these incubators do not provide the babies with any heating. There’s no oxygen, milk or special medications.”
11. SOUNDBITE(Arabic) Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer:
“The ventilator intended for the entire unit, originally designed to accommodate four cases, is now being stretched to handle 75 or 80 cases at the same time. This means that most cases will die because there is no respirator available. This means that we sometimes have to choose among cases, whose conditions will allow them to live and whose won’t. We have reached a stage where we have to choose which babies will live.”
12. SOUNDBITE(Arabic) Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer:
“A baby could die in the incubator, and no one might know for a long time.”
13. Med shot, babies in an incubator
14. Close up, a health worker caring for a baby in an incubator
15. Med shot, a health worker caring for a baby in an incubator
16. Wide shot, babies in incubators
17. Wide shot, a monitor and babies in incubators
18. Med shot, two babies in a incubator
19. Wide shot, babies in incubators
20. Close up, Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer caring for a baby in a incubator
21. Wide shot, Dr. Ahmed Al Shae in the NICU
22. Med shot, Dr. Ahmed Al Shae
23. Med shot, Dr. Ahmed Al Shae
24. Med shot, a woman and an incubator
25. Close up, two babies in an incubator
26. Med shot, three babies in an incubator
27. Med shot, Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer caring for two babies in a incubator
28. Med shot, Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer
29. Med shot, Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer
30. Close up, a baby
31. Close up, two babies
32. Med shot, a baby in incubator
33. Close up, a baby in incubator
34. Wide shot, the NICU
35. Wide shot, the NICU
36. Close up, a baby
37. SOUNDBITE(Arabic) Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer:
“The children were evacuated from the [Kamal Adwan] Hospital by ambulance. They were in a very bad condition. They were without incubators, sufficient oxygen, and necessary medical solutions. Each ambulance was attended to by only one doctor, who had to manage approximately seven or eight other cases. This is the most inadequate means of transportation for a sick baby or any other medical condition.”
38. SOUNDBITE(Arabic) Dr. Ahmed Al Shaer:
“We are uncertain if their family members have been killed or are still alive. Even when these children died, we could not find any of their relatives to come bury them. The Ministry or hospital administration had to contact the police. They were buried by the hospital.”
39. Varies shots, streets near the hospital
Around 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza – 1.5 million of them are now crammed into Rafah, a tiny sliver of land now accommodating nearly five times its original population. Hunger has become a deadly threat, and desperation and the scarcity of food, fuel and clean water have led to a breakdown in law and order. Around 75 percent of civilian infrastructure has been reduced to rubble.
The conflict has not spared the health system, which has now partially collapsed. Just 12 out of 36 hospitals across the Strip remain partially functional – 23 hospitals
are not operating at all. Amid this destruction an estimated 180 women give birth every day.
Only two maternity hospitals remain on the Strip, one of which, the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital, is now serving the majority of pregnant women in the Gaza Strip. Inside the reality is grim: the hospital is overwhelmed with patients; doctors and midwives are desperate for medicines and supplies; and are struggling to provide adequate care to newborns. Doctors are forced to make the impossible decision of deciding which baby lives and which baby dies where once they offered hope and the chance of getting better.
If women and their newborns do survive pregnancy and childbirth, they must return to squalid conditions in displacement sites. Malnutrition is soaring among the more than 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as their babies. Mothers cannot access sufficient food and clean water to produce milk for their babies, and if formula is available and affordable, finding safe water to boil and mix with it is impossible for many. Seven in 10 Gazans are consuming either salty or contaminated water.
Despite ongoing attacks and multiple obstructions to safe aid delivery, UNFPA and partners have delivered life-saving medicines and equipment which have supported more than half of the births in Gaza since the war began on 7 October. But this is not enough. The people of Gaza are sick, hungry, exhausted and traumatized. Many are clinging to life, yet access obstruction in the form of insecurity, denial of passage or delays, are making it incredibly challenging to reach areas where people need urgent help the most, particularly those in the north which has been largely cut off from aid. UNFPA calls for multiple entry points to be opened to allow aid into Gaza; and safe passage of aid to all in need throughout Gaza, including to the north.
