As the world celebrates International Women's Day, the Gaza Ministry of Health provided an update on the challenges facing women in the Gaza Strip.
This is how things stand on Friday, March 8, 2024:
Struggles and humanitarian crisis
- On Friday, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said some 5,000 women were still giving birth each month in the territory, in conditions he said were “harsh, unsafe and unhealthy.”
- Meanwhile, some 60,000 women were going through their pregnancies without adequate medical care and suffering from dehydration and malnutrition, he said.
- On Friday, three rockets were fired from Gaza at the Israeli city of Sderot. Israeli officials say one of the rockets landed within the city limits, while the other two hit outside it, with no reports of damage or injuries from the attack.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- On Thursday, US President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address in which he announced that his administration would build a “temporary dock” off the coast of the Palestinian territory to facilitate the delivery of aid.
- He also urged Israel to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip, but stressed that he has been a “lifelong supporter” of the US ally. “No one has a stronger request than me. I challenge any of you here,” he said.
- An organizer with the “unengaged” campaign in the United States, which seeks to pressure Biden over his support for Israel amid the Gaza war, told Al Jazeera that she is not happy with the speech.
- “I think it further alienated voters who already felt like the president hadn't been listening,” said Asma Mohammed, an organizer with the no-preference voting campaign in Minnesota.
- Meanwhile, regionally, Bill Burns, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is said to have arrived in Qatar in what could be a last attempt to secure a truce deal before Ramadan, CNN reports. , citing an anonymous US official. official and a source close to the trip on Thursday.
- The United States, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have airdropped more aid into northern Gaza. The UAE military said Thursday it delivered 53 tons of food and medical aid.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Local media reported on Friday that Israeli forces stormed the town of Urif, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, and rearrested a released Palestinian prisoner.
- Al Jazeera Arabic also reports that Israeli forces have erected iron barriers at the Lion Gate in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem to prevent people from attending Friday prayers there.
