Gaza women's long wait for deliverance

As the new year begins, hopes that it will bring succour to the women and children of Gaza have been dashed.

- Lalita Panicker

As the new year begins, hopes that it will bring succour to the women and children of Gaza have been dashed. For the women, it has been a continuum of deprivation, degradation and despair. Various estimates suggest that at least 150,000 pregnant women have been left to their own devices with no medical care to ensure their health or that of their unborn children. They have little food, hardly any safe shelter, no drinking water or sanitation, and things are getting worse. Whatever food is available is hardly nutritious. UN figures say at least 38,000 adolescent girls and 8,000 pregnant women could be facing famine which means that when born, the babies will be low birth weight and the mothers will be at grave risk.