Pregnant women in Gaza describe malnutrition and extreme distress caused by Israel's blockade

@Everexpanding I actually saw that article in the journal and said I won't post that because I can see the accusations of becoming pregnant starting.

The situation will worsen for any women in Gaza City as Israel is halting aid going in there/air dropsnso I imagine any heavily pregnant women and their babies unable to evacuate will die soon.

Globally the rate of unplanned pregnancy is 50%.

It is only Palestinian women who should be berated even though they do not have access to contraception.

So, to add to the list of things that Palestinian women should endure, they should not have the freedom to have sex as Israel chose to block access to food, contraception etc.

I wonder if this poster has any comments in the rates of fertility of some sections of the Israeli female population- or does she only question fertility rates of Palestinian women?

Yes I know that. I wrote that above at least once. It doesnt have to result in pregnancy.

Mobile maternity units are in use @Comedycook.

Women find comfort in sexual intimacy too @SharonEllis. Parents find hope, strength and love in pregnancy. These are natural human responses even in the most traumatic of times.

Im not surprised people have sex in a warzone....I do wonder where they find the privacy to do so?

I also was watching the news a few weeks ago and they were talking to a pregnant woman in Gaza...they said she was expecting a baby girl....I wondered if they are still able to have scans as how did they know the sex of the baby?

I'm just answering points put to me. If someone had just responded to mids point saying something empathetic about women who are pregnant and don't want to be we wouldn't be here, would we? I said the reasons were nuanced up thread. Its you and others who just wanted to reduce a complicated issue to Israel bad/Palestinians good, as usual.

I agree op. I have been historically v pro
Israel and particularly immediately following October7 but I feel impotent in this situation.
I will support charities like Red Cross but is there anything political we can do?

I am not a leftie and v much think Israel historically as a democracy has been a good thing in the region. Is there a group that supports Israel and that is not anti semitic, acknowledges the horrors of October 7 but will stand up against Netanyahu and this nightmare?

The only group I can think of right now is the Lib Dems but I don’t know where they stand on the conflict.

No, others are saying that having sex in wartime is normal, with starving women and knowing that the woman will have go through pregnancy and childbirth. That suggests to me implying that the men cant control themselves when we all know that its perfectly possible to have sex without making a woman pregnant. I have explicitly said that men in wartime the world over have a propensity to rape. I was explicitly not being racist about it. I said it was a male thing not a race thing.

No quite the opposite. I believe all people have agency and are able to make choices. I don't presume that all sex is coerced in Gaza and haven't even come close to saying that. But it is odd, don't you think, that educated women would choose to get pregnant and bring children into the world in this situation? Obviously they are not responsible for the war. But they are responsible for the choices they make. If they have indeed made that choice. I think you're naive to think its a free choice for all of them given the legal structure that doesn't protect women from rape very well, the well known propensity of men to rape vulnerable women in war, and the longstanding cultural pressure on Palestinian women to have babies (Arafat 's 'womb of the Arab woman is my greatest weapon' etc).

This really does show lack of awareness of what has and is happening in Gaza. Perhaps this post also explains why some people think those criticising the situation in Gaza are simply being antisemitic. They may not be aware of what is apparent to most of the people world now.

This article has distressing pictures

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-21/ty-article-magazine/starvation-is-everywhere-virtual-tours-of-gaza-clinics-expose-the-scale-of-the-horror/00000198-ccb7-dcce-a5bf-cdb714fb0000

@Everexpanding

I have posted this link before, but it bears reposting I think. This is a small mutual aid charity delivering aid to civilians in Gaza. It’s a grassroots organisation and was featured on C4 news a few weeks ago, which is how I heard about it. It’s run by I think 3 siblings who were themselves displaced from Gaza last year. One of them is now based in the UK.

https://chuffed.org/project/123783-gaza-food-water-and-cash-aid

I think its bizarrely racist to think Palestinian men can't control themselves.

Given that you are the one saying that these women are pregnant because their husbands are raping them you're being racist by your own definition @SharonEllis.

Yes, we agree with you that it’s racist to think Palestinian men can’t control themselves…

So the answer of the impact of starvation and war trauma on women and their babies is not to have sex, and presume when it happens they are under coercion?

What about the more humane pathway of ensuring there was sufficient food, truly safe zones and contraception available.

Why do people who support Israel always want to portray Gazan women as subjugated? Some maybe - as in every culture. Palestinian women are highly educated.

https://www.stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk/women-and-girls-education-gupt-perspective#:~:text=Palestinian%20women%20continue%20to%20be,women%20comprise%2030%25%20of%20staff.

Israel is sending supplies to Gaza. Why on earth would they block them - especially if doing so makes them look bad? How do you know it isn’t Hamas that’s holding onto the food supplies to fuel their propaganda campaign?

I'm not using a racist trope, don't be silly. You are closing your eyes to the possibility that women in this situation are being used. I think its appalling that any woman goes through pregnancy and childbirth in such situations and men should bear some responsibility. I think its bizarrely racist to think Palestinian men can't control themselves. That too is an age old racist trope!

There are ways to find comfort without making a woman pregnant. I think its appalling that everone apparently thinks it ok to put women through pregnancy and childbirth in this situation. Incredible.