Trauma replaces joy for mothers giving birth during Israel’s war on Gaza
Al Jazeera
Three Palestinian women tell of giving birth in Jabalia refugee camp under the threat of Israeli shelling and bombing.
Jabalia, Gaza Strip – In Jabalia, the joy of welcoming a newborn is marred, to say the least.
Marred by the pain of displacement, by mothers having to give birth as fighter jets streak overhead and by the uncertainty of what kind of future these babies will have.
Al Jazeera spoke to three women sheltering in a United Nations school in Jabalia in northern Gaza about their pregnancies and births, the losses they have suffered and whether they are able to derive joy from the arrival of their babies.
Aya Deeb sits in a corner of a room in a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). She speaks softly while her baby, Yara, sleeps beside her. The area around her is neat and tidy, and Yara is well looked after, covered tenderly with a pink blanket in the repurposed carseat she is sleeping in.
Adjusting her blue patterned isdal robe, Aya tells Al Jazeera how she feared losing Yara before she was born on Christmas Day.
