CARE International’s West Bank and Gaza Country Director has released a desperate message this week, calling on the UN Security Council to declare an immediate ceasefire and guarantee the protection of humanitarian workers and humanitarian relief in the occupied territories.
Hiba Tibi, who has been detailing the atrocities facing Gazans since October 7 — the same day Hamas took more than 240 Israelis hostage and killed more than 1,200 including women, the elderly and children, said that almost 70 per cent of those killed in Gaza so far have been women and children.
“Nearly every day we have seen more fatalities and injuries than the day before,” she said yesterday during dialogues with the UN Security Council experts working on Women Peace and Security.
”Each of those lives matter and yet, we seem to have become used to these daily reports,” Tibi said.
Tibi said that the number of women and girls responsible for basic household duties will increase, “….as the violence results in a growing number of widows, for whom the loss of livelihoods, housing, and land will have an even more significant impact.”
She also described how sexual and reproductive healthcare have “become worse now”, as the violence and destruction “have resulted in nearly half a million women and girls being displaced from their homes.”
“Protection and gender-based violence risks are on the rise given the overcrowded shelters’ conditions while access to services is extremely limited,” she added.
With more than 180 women giving birth in Gaza every day, the lack of medical assistance and overcrowded medical facilities means that mothers and their babies are risking complications and infections that could threaten their lives.
“We have received reports of women undergoing C-sections without proper anesthesia,” Tibi said. “Of young mothers unable to breastfeed for lack of proper nutrition and forced to use contaminated water to prepare formula, which is also very difficult to find.”
“Due to the lack of capacity in hospitals, women are being discharged within as little as three hours after giving birth, and tragically we are now witnessing premature babies dying because there is no power to run incubators that could keep them alive.”
Tibi urged the Security Council to “prioritise the preservation of human life above all else and call on parties to declare an immediate ceasefire.”
She added there is an urgent need to ensure the full, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance. She called for the unconditional release of all civilian hostages, and evacuation of patients for urgent care.
Since the hostages were taken in October, Hamas have only released four hostages — American-Israeli mother and daughter Judith Raanan her daughter Natalie Raanan, Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85. This week, Toronto’s Israeli consul general also confirmed the death of Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born activist. The 74-year-old was killed by Hamas during the assault on Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel on the same day the hostages were abducted.
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