Sharon Zhang
Truthout / October 31, 2024
Over 1,000 are expected to give birth soon, with fewer and fewer health facilities to turn to.
Thousands of pregnant people are being impacted by Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Lebanon, according to the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, with pregnant people facing fewer and fewer options for care and shelter as Israeli forces attack huge swaths of the country’s civilian infrastructure.
An estimated 11,600 pregnant people in Lebanon have been affected by Israel’s escalated violence and campaign of forced displacement, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has reported. Roughly 1,300 of those affected are expected to give birth in the next month, according to the agency.
Over 1.4 million people have been displaced by Israel’s assault, Lebanese officials have estimated, including half a million children. The displacement is causing physical, financial and mental stress, with many families being displaced multiple times by Israeli forces.
Dangers for pregnant people are exacerbated by the Israeli military’s destruction of a quarter of Lebanon’s infrastructure, estimates say, including its attacks on 53 health facilities and 27 ambulances amid the current escalation.
UNFPA shared the story of Soumaia, who was forced to flee south Lebanon when Israel began its heavy bombardments in September. Soumaia was five months pregnant when she, her husband and their eight children began heading toward Syria — “a journey that took four days with little food, only to find the borders closed,” the agency wrote.
When they were finally granted entry, Soumaia experienced a stillbirth and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors treated her. “I woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pain and cramps. When I went to the bathroom, I realized that something was wrong. I was in my fifth month of pregnancy, and my baby was gone,” she told the UNFPA.
“Losing my baby in the midst of all this chaos felt like the final blow,” Soumaia said.
Those still in Lebanon are facing fewer and fewer options for health care, including reproductive care. Lebanon’s health care system has been “pushed to the brink” by Israel’s aggression, with at least 100 primary health care centers and at least five hospitals being forced to close.
Just on Thursday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that Israeli forces killed six paramedics and wounded four in attacks spanning just a few hours in southern Lebanon, with four being killed after Israel struck a gathering point for civil defense. In total, Israeli forces have killed 178 paramedics in Lebanon and wounded 179.
In all, Lebanese health officials report that 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023.
The death toll includes a staggering number of children. Officials have reported that 166 children have been killed in the past year in Lebanon.
The death toll of Israel’s massacres is increasing, according to UNICEF; this month alone, Israel has killed at least one child in Lebanon and injured 10 more each day.
“Thousands more children who have survived the many months of constant bombings physically unscathed, are now acutely distressed by the violence and chaos around them,” the group’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a statement on Thursday.
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labour
