In late October 2023, Raneem Hejazi was eight months pregnant when an Israeli airstrike hit her apartment and her arm and legs were broken and burned. Her family members in the apartment did not survive the strike. Hejazi was rushed to Nassar Hospital, which did not have electricity, water or proper medicine. She needed a caesarean section, and because there was no electricity, the medical team used their cell phones to conduct the operation to save Hejazi and her baby. However, without adequate resources, including food, shelter, baby supplies and water, it has become nearly impossible to care for a newborn in Gaza. The rest of Hejazi’s story is unknown.
The struggle for reproductive justice in Gaza and Palestine predates October 2023, but the ongoing genocide has drastically increased violations fo reproductive justice for women and girls. The reproductive justice framework outlined by In Our Own Voice includes three major pillars: the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to nurture children in a safe and healthy environment. Violations of these tenets can be understood as breaches of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly with respect to the articles related to family, the right to adequate healthcare and the rights of mothers and children.
Violations of reproductive justice are not often covered in the news, but they are critical to understand. We, as a Smith community, must ensure women and girls in Gaza do not go unnoticed. At Smith, we have protests and students calling to free Palestine. As a community that deeply values human rights, the conditions in Gaza which deny women the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to nurture children in a safe and healthy environment, must be centered at these protests. This is fundamental layer of the genocide and of reproductive rights that needs to be exposed and we need to raise awareness about these horrific conditions women are enduring. These are blatant human rights violations that cannot be ignored anymore.
Due to the impact of the war in Gaza and the Israeli destruction of cities, women have been forced to evacuate and live in tent camps. Menstruating women and girls have limited or no access to sanitary products because of the destruction of stores, high prices of hygiene products and restricted access to aid. Many women are cutting parts of towels, diapers or extra clothes. However, “Using unclean materials as sanitary products can cause a risk of infection and potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.”
While thousands struggle with unsanitary conditions and a lack of sanitary products, other women have completely lost their periods due to stress. Some women have taken norethisterone tablets, which are typically used for excessive bleeding and painful periods, in order to stop their periods and avoid worsening sanitary conditions and health risks.
Conditions for childbirth are even more inhumane. The Palestinian Feminist Collective recounts “doctors using the flashlights of their phones to conduct the operations due to being cut off from electricity by the occupation forces” and reports that between October and December 2023, “over 20,000 women have given birth under genocidal conditions.” The PFC describes this crisis:
“We bear witness to the deprivation of prenatal and postnatal care that puts Palestinian mothers and babies especially at risk of death, and forces mothers to give birth under intense bombings on the floors of crowded hospitals with no pain medication…As a result of the lack of food and water due to the blockade, birthing women are deprived of the ability to properly clean after delivery and have resorted to mass hysterectomies because they are unable to control their postpartum bleeding. ”
This extreme and dangerous environment has led to a 300% increase in miscarriages. WHO has reported that ongoing hostilities have destroyed 84% of all medical facilities. Bombings typically intensify at night, and if a woman goes into labor, the destruction of telecommunications makes it impossible to call an ambulance. According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, if women are able to reach a medical facility, some “are only admitted when they are fully dilated.” Women are discharged within as little as three hours after giving birth due to a lack of capacity and resources in hospitals, which has led to a drastic increase in infections and stitching complications that result in extreme blood loss. Giving birth can already be a traumatic experience, and these women face horrific and fatal conditions with no proper care.
After birth, breastfeeding mothers in Gaza are struggling to produce milk, and the stress of raising a baby under such circumstances leads to extreme anxiety. Without clean water, some women have resorted to mixing baby formula with soda and energy drinks, explains Gaza Country Director Hiba Tibi.
If mothers and their newborns survive the birth, there is the struggle of raising a child in the camps. One member of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted, “Women and babies are sleeping on floors in the cold and are being deprived of their most simple and basic rights.”
As a ceasefire is technically underway, these stories and details of the conditions and violations still need to be addressed because we need to understand the atrocious conditions people are facing. These deadly conditions will not end even with a ceasefire. While a ceasefire is urgent and essential, political and student activists must deeply consider these violations and should integrate reproductive health care into aid efforts.
It is imperative that women and activists for reproductive justice are present in ceasefire and policy conversations, and that we not do disregard the deadly conditions that this genocide has brought to women and children. Women’s rights and reproductive justice violations in Gaza need to be addressed in the media. These are horrific stories and statistics, but they shed light on the genocidal conditions and further prove how inhumane this genocide is.
At Smith, we need to raise awareness of these fatal conditions and ensure that these victims do not go unnoticed because if these aren’t human rights violations, I don’t know what is.
