Gaza: No Safe Pregnancies During Israeli Assault

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar, Medical evacuee from Gaza:

It was 2 a.m.  The bombing started.  

The bombing was very, very heavy. 

At 2:30 a.m., Hudaifa (son) and Jenan (daughter) came together from their room.  

They said: “Mom, we can’t sleep.”  

“We're very scared.”

Narration:

When the bombing started, Shaima was at home in southern  Gaza with her husband, and three of their four children. 

Their youngest child was staying the night at her grandparent’s’ house. 

Shaima was nine months pregnant with their fifth child.

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar:

Jenan was in the middle, so I told her, sleep on this side and leave (twin) brother next to your (older) brother.”   

It was barely a minute after I switched them when the bombing happened. 

Jenan was martyred, may God have mercy on her.   

Her two legs were cut off, and she had a big piece of shrapnel in her head. 

Mohammed, my son, was also martyred.

Narration:

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, has severely harmed the healthcare system there.

Israeli authorities have also unlawfully restricted humanitarian aid and medical supplies to people in Gaza, amounting to the war crime of collective punishment.

As the occupying power in Gaza, Israel’s actions violate the right to the highest attainable standard of health for pregnant women and girls and their children across Gaza. 
 

Israeli authorities should facilitate the urgent restoration of Gaza’s healthcare system so that all people, including pregnant women and babies, have access to quality medical care.

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar:

This leg was next to my husband.  

When the bombing happened, it was set on fire,  flesh was melting before my eyes fat was dripping, as if it was a barbecue. 

It was a very scary sight.   

When the bed flew and I fell to the ground, water containers flew, and fell next to me, and I started scooping water from it to cool my leg down. 

Half of my foot has melted away. 

If I hadn’t poured water on it all of it would have melted. 

My gut feeling was that Jenan, Mohammed and my husband had been martyred. 

The paramedics took a long time to find me because I was under the rubble and among the ruins. 

As soon as they found me, I told them, “I'm pregnant, save the baby.”

Narration:

The first hospital Shaima was taken to in Gaza, among the few still functioning at limited capacity, was full, so she had to be moved to another one. 

Shaima’s legs were broken in seven places, and a metal fragment had pierced her abdomen. 

She felt the baby move and begged doctors to perform a caesarean section, but they said she was not stable enough for the surgery.

Two days later, the baby stopped moving.  

Three days after the bombing, Shaima had a stillbirth.

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar:

As soon as I reached the maternity hospital, I told the doctor, 

“I am not able to have a single contraction".

He said to me, "I want you to lift your leg, and God will help you."  

After one contraction the fetus came out dead.  

I held him for four minutes, and they took him from me and shrouded him.  

I told them to name him after his father, Abdullah.

Narration:

Doctors in Gaza told Shaima that her legs needed amputating.

She was eventually evacuated along with her two surviving children to Egypt to get a second opinion, and from there to Qatar. 

Shaima has had over forty operations.

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar:

I was bed-ridden for five months.  

In Gaza, if anyone as much as just walked by my bed I would scream from pain.  

But thank God, now I can move my legs.

Narration:

While Shaima’s physical wounds are beginning to heal, her emotional scars remain raw.  

But she puts on a brave face for the sake of her two surviving children, seven-year-old Maryam and ten-year-old Hudaifa, who are with her in Doha.

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar:

I wait for the children to sleep so I can cry. I don't want to cry in front of my children. I flip through photos of my husband and children, and I cry.

Narration:

Hudaifa’s grief over the loss of his older brother Mohammed, and his twin sister Jenan, runs so deep that sometimes he acts out imaginary role-plays.

Shaima Suhail Abu Jazar:

At night Hudaifa puts a doll next to him here and here. 

One named Jenan and one named Mohammed.  

He talks to them at night. He says, “Forgive me, Jenan, I used to hit you.” 

And then he turns to the other doll and says, “forgive me Mohammed. “Yes, brother, you were my support.

You defended me at school.

If anyone wanted to do anything to me, you would come to my defense.

Who will defend me from now on?”

Text on screen

Following 48 surgeries and extensive physiotherapy, Shaima began to walk again. 

The international community should press Israel to lift its unlawful blockade on Gaza, cease all unlawful attacks on healthcare facilities, and stop obstructing the delivery of lifesaving assistance.