According to Amnesty International, the population in Gaza still lives under very difficult conditions despite the ceasefire in October. Amnesty International has collected documentation and conducted interviews with displaced women and healthcare workers in Gaza, showing how women and girls are particularly hard hit by the war. Mariam Kirollos, a political advisor at Amnesty International, reports that many women in the Gaza Strip do not have access to medicines and cannot have safe births, with women so malnourished they lack breast milk.
Newborn departments have 50 to 70 percent more patients than capacity, and up to three newborns sometimes share one incubator. There has been a sharp increase in complications among pregnant women and newborns, including premature births and infections. Large parts of Gaza's healthcare system are out of operation after months of bombing, with a shortage of medicines and destroyed hospitals.
The World Health Organization reported on Friday that there is critically little medicine in Gaza. Doctors Without Borders recognizes Amnesty's findings. Lindis Hurum, Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders, states that the situation is not improving, with enormous healthcare needs as the system has been systematically destroyed over nearly two and a half years.
The situation is particularly hard on vulnerable groups like children and women, who are severely traumatized after over two years of fear. Doctors Without Borders cannot register in Israel, preventing equipment or personnel changes, and has only two to three months of equipment left. At the end of February, Israel closed all operational border crossings to Gaza, stopping limited aid deliveries and medical evacuations, with no one coming in or out.
Amnesty International believes there is still an ongoing genocide in Gaza and alleges Israel has not eased aid access. The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly denied genocide accusations as baseless and deny violations of international law. The exact number of casualties among women and children and the timeline for reopening border crossings remain unknown.