60,000 pregnant women in Gaza suffering from malnutrition

Around 60,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip are suffering from malnutrition and dehydration due to Israel’s war against the enclave, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

The ministry’s statement came on the eve of International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 each year.

The ministry said that these women also lack proper health care. It added that women make up 49% of the population of the Strip, most of them in childbearing age, with about 5,000 women giving birth monthly in harsh, unsafe and unhealthy conditions as a result of shelling and displacement.

Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said, "About 60,000 women, meanwhile, were going through their pregnancies without proper health care and suffering dehydration and malnutrition. We call on women’s institutions around the world to stand alongside Palestinian women and demand an end to Israeli aggression."