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00:00 Let's talk more about the evacuation of those premature babies, 31 of which have been moved from the Al Shifa Hospital.
00:07 Leila Baker joins us. She's the regional director for the Arab states in the UNFPA.
00:13 That's the UN Agency for Sexual and Reproductive Health. Leila, thanks for speaking to France 24 today.
00:19 I'd like to start with the top story, 31 premature infants
00:25 finally evacuated from Al Shifa. Walk us through the risks of moving babies who are in such a delicate condition
00:32 as these 31 premature infants were.
00:35 First of all, before I can walk you through that, perhaps you'll allow me just a little leeway to explain
00:43 how desperate the situation is that those 31 babies were born
00:48 prematurely in a hospital that has been besieged,
00:52 bombarded and
00:54 illegally attacked.
00:56 So that the women who were bearing those children,
00:59 oftentimes giving birth without anesthesia or adequate health care, had to do so in Al Shifa.
01:06 They were scrambling for their life to begin with.
01:09 An evacuation also, it assumes that you can go from one place to another safely with the requisite
01:19 services that you need at the end of the line.
01:22 These babies have been moved while they are in dire condition, in urgent need of medical care,
01:30 regular stable
01:32 incubators and
01:34 facilities to feed them, provide them with oxygen.
01:37 They are moved under conditions that not only jeopardize their life, but are in complete breach of any
01:44 human act and certainly in breach of international humanitarian law.
01:50 I cannot put myself in the place of any of those poor parents or the medical personnel who've been bombarded in Shifa.
01:57 The decisions that they've had to make.
01:59 Absolutely, Lidia.
02:01 Horrendous
02:03 decisions needing to be made by those
02:05 parents. You heard in that report, the fact that more babies, more and more babies are being born
02:11 prematurely in Gaza, given those
02:14 horrible conditions that you've just described and the lack of medication there.
02:19 50,000 women are currently pregnant in Gaza. Those are the figures that we have.
02:23 What more can you tell us about the numbers of women who are giving birth? Is it 180 a day? What can you tell us?
02:30 It's very difficult to give you the exact figure with so much displacement.
02:36 We estimate though on current figures that around 50,000 pregnant women are now in Gaza,
02:42 many of them huddled in
02:45 unhygienic,
02:47 overcrowded, displaced shelters.
02:50 Many of those shelters are subject also to the bombardment and certainly to the harassment and the difficult
02:56 circumstances that have been imposed on them as a result of the Israeli bombardment for the last 42 days.
03:02 Many of the hospitals that are
03:05 supposed to be a place of protection,
03:08 refuge, care for the ill, the sick, the injured and certainly for any woman seeking health care,
03:15 they have been turned into a death trap. We have had difficulty in even
03:20 finding many of the women to provide them with the care and the medical aid and some of the emergency
03:26 humanitarian aid that UNFPA is so keen to deliver to the most vulnerable women. Now,
03:33 over a million people in the south of Gaza. We're unable even to reach those in the north. We require
03:41 unhindered
03:43 access in a safe
03:45 environment. That requires
03:48 100% ceasefire, not a pause, not a corridor.
03:53 We require a ceasefire. The people of Gaza, the Palestinians who are there, the civilians who are there,
04:00 require that ceasefire now.
04:03 Without that, I fear for the lives of the women and children and people of Gaza.
04:09 It has been turned into a death trap.
04:13 Leila, talk to us about the lack of food. I mean, we're speaking about pregnant women, premature babies, of course, having no food, having no water
04:21 exacerbates a condition which is already unlivable.
04:25 You said it yourself, it is
04:29 unlivable. It is inhumane to deprive an entire population of water.
04:35 There is no clean water. We estimate that over 70% of the Gazan Palestinian population
04:41 has no access to clean drinking water.
04:44 Many of our people who are there, including staff members who work for UNFPA,
04:49 have resorted to giving their children who are holed up in
04:53 unhygienic, overcrowded centers brackish water, seawater, where they have also been sick.
05:00 The United Nations, with UNFPA
05:03 fully on board within that family, is trying desperately to reach those most vulnerable women and children and civilians
05:11 there. We cannot, however, replace the civilian infrastructure that must be maintained.
05:17 The hospitals, the schools, those are sanctuaries. When they are bombed,
05:23 when the UN premises are not respected, that is a huge breach of international
05:30 humanitarian law. It is inconceivable that someone would bomb and raid a center
05:37 without the food and water we fear for the lives of not only the 50,000
05:41 pregnant women, but all the young girls, all of the children who are
05:46 now showing signs of malnutrition. I ask you, what will be their future?
05:51 Leila, a word from you on the medical teams in this. You heard in that report
05:57 a UN member of staff saying, you know, I'm humbled by the work that you're doing.
06:02 Medics, nurses who are on the ground are working with nothing, no resources whatsoever.
06:08 They are nothing short of heroic. They have put their lives at risk to save others.
06:16 They refuse to leave their ill,
06:19 sick patients, to put a woman out while she's pregnant and not give her care,
06:25 to where they will take care of the premature babies and do everything that they can to save that life.
06:32 I think that the medical personnel who have been at Al Shifa Hospital and all of the Palestinian hospitals that are now under siege and attack
06:40 are nothing short of heroes who respect the sanctity of life and they are trying to preserve it the best that their profession
06:49 has asked them to undertake.
06:52 I hope and I urge and I beg of the international community
06:59 and those who can bring this to a halt
07:03 to please do everything that they can
07:05 to bring a ceasefire and allow for those babies and those women to have a shred of hope and a chance of a future life.
07:15 All right, Leila Baker, you are regional director for Arab State and the UNFPA.
07:20 Thank you very much for giving us an insight today of the dire situation in Gaza currently. Thanks very much indeed.
07:28 Thank you.