Gaza: Aid groups warn mothers and newborns still at risk (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Next, it's still dangerous to be a mother in Gaza. That's the message from aid agencies who have investigated maternal and neonatal deaths. They say that, despite the cease-fire, preventable deaths are still taking place, as mothers struggle to obtain adequate health care and nutrition. Israel has increased the flow of aid into Gaza, but medics in the Strip are still reporting delivering malnourished babies. Shama Khalil reports from Jerusalem.

[00:00:28] Speaker 2: Before they took their first breath, the cruelty of this war had already battered their fragile bodies. In this maternity hospital in Gaza City, families who've endured bombing, displacement and hunger wait anxiously, hoping their babies will survive being born into this conflict. Dr Naim Ayoub says his hospital has had to compensate for a collapsed health system across northern Gaza. The flow of aid into the Strip has been scaled up in recent months following the cease-fire, but he sees a prevailing pattern. Malnourished, traumatized mothers giving birth to underweight or premature babies.

[00:01:10] Speaker 3: Many babies do not survive. We've seen numerous miscarriages and premature deliveries. Those who make it are usually very frail, underdeveloped and underweight, often less than two kilos. These women were surrounded by bombing and airstrikes and by the debris and toxic residue they leave behind. Some babies are born with deformities as a result.

[00:01:30] Speaker 2: Twenty-five-year-old Suha Khadr is a widowed mother of five. She fled southern Gaza after being displaced in Amawasi camp and is now sheltering much further north in Gaza City. Eight months pregnant, she's one of thousands of expectant mothers with little access to health care and almost no proper nutrition.

[00:01:51] Speaker 4: I would get very dizzy. Sometimes I bled because of malnutrition. I've been so frightened during this pregnancy because of the bombing and because we keep fleeing. I look at my five little boys in these awful circumstances and at one point I wish this pregnancy would not continue, but by the grace of God I am still pregnant.

[00:02:13] Speaker 2: Only recently did Suha see a doctor, just once. She's expecting a baby girl. She'll come into this world, Suha says, but her father is gone. Shot while trying to collect food aid in Rafah five months ago.

[00:02:29] Speaker 4: There will be no food for her, no formula, no clothing. It's a terrible feeling, knowing you cannot provide for your child, sitting here in this cold tent.

[00:02:40] Speaker 2: Many pregnant women now walk for hours just to reach the occasional appointment. Repeated displacement has scarred their lives and those of their unborn babies. Israel says it's meeting its obligations under the ceasefire, facilitating an increased flow of food and medical supplies into Gaza. But aid agencies and the UN dispute this claim.

[00:03:00] Speaker 5: Right now it's dangerous to be a mother or an expectant mother in Gaza. For the past two years and up until now, the conditions of life did not change, even after the ceasefire. When we're speaking about reproductive violence, we're referring to actions that harm, control or deny a woman's reproductive autonomy and health.

[00:03:25] Speaker 2: For these babies, doctors warn, the damage has already been done. They were denied the sustenance they needed even before they were born. A deprivation likely to shape their lives for years to come. Shaima Khalil, BBC News, Jerusalem.

[00:03:42] Speaker 1: Let's give you a sense of what's happening right now there in the region. This is the live feed coming into us here from the Rafah crossing. This is on the Egyptian side, as you can see a line of ambulances there because there have been people leaving Gaza to get medical treatment on the other side of the crossing there. The significance of the Rafah crossing being opened recently was that it is the only crossing that doesn't open directly into Israel, was a crucial part of the negotiations, Donald Trump's attempted peace framework in the region. And you can see there those ambulances are standing by.