The main maternity hospital in Rafah is no longer accepting patients
UNFPA said the hospital, the Emirati Maternity Hospital, had treated about 85 of a total of 180 births per day in Gaza before fighting escalated between Hamas and Israeli forces on the outskirts of Rafah.
About half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have crowded into Rafah after fleeing other parts of the enclave during the seven-month war.
The Emirati hospital only has five delivery beds. After the mass refugee of displaced Gazans, the hospital became the main birthing location in Rafah, UNFPA said. Other hospitals in the city, such as Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, have been admitting war wounded for months and referring laboring women to the Emirates.
It was not immediately clear where women in Rafah who wanted to give birth in a hospital would be able to do so. “Humanitarian partners, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, have established alternative healthcare facilities that can provide different levels of care,” UNFPA’s statement to Reuters read.
