UN: More than 11,000 pregnant women in Lebanon are at risk due to Israeli aggression

Thousands of pregnant women are affected by Israel’s bombing and invasion of Lebanon, according to the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health, pregnant women face fewer and fewer options for care and shelter as Israeli forces attack huge swathes of civilian infrastructure the country.

An estimated 11,600 people are pregnant in Lebanon were affected by Israel’s escalating violence and forced displacement campaign, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reported. About 1,300 of those affected are expected to give birth in the next month, according to the agency.

Over 1.4 million people were displaced through Israel’s assault, Lebanese officials estimated, including half a million children. Displacement causes physical, financial and mental stress, with many families displaced multiple times by Israeli forces.

Dangers to pregnant women are exacerbated by the Israeli military’s destruction of a quarter of Lebanon’s infrastructure, estimates say: including attacks on 53 health facilities and 27 ambulances amid the current escalation.

UNFPA shared the story of Soumaia, who was forced to flee southern Lebanon when Israel began its heavy bombing in September. Soumaia was five months pregnant when she, her husband and their eight children started heading to Syria — “a journey that lasted four days with little food, only to find the borders closed,” the agency wrote.

When they were finally allowed in, Soumaia suffered a stillbirth and was rushed to hospital, where doctors treated her. “I woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pains and cramps. When I went to the bathroom, I realized something was wrong. I was five months pregnant and my baby was gone,” she told UNFPA.

“Losing my child in the middle of this chaos was like the final blow,” Soumaia said.

Those still in Lebanon face fewer and fewer health care options, including reproductive care. Lebanon’s health 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 Thursday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that Israeli forces killed six paramedics and wounded four in attacks that lasted just a few hours in southern Lebanon, with four killed after Israel struck a civil defense meeting point. In total, Israeli forces killed 178 paramedics in Lebanon and wounded 179.

In all, Lebanese health officials report that 2,800 people they were killed in Lebanon from 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.

Death toll from massacres in Israel rising, according to UNICEF; This month alone, Israel has killed at least one child in Lebanon and injured 10 more every day.

“Thousands of other children who survived many months of constant bombing physically unscathed are now deeply disturbed by the violence and chaos around them,” the group’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a statement Thursday.