The only Planned Parenthood clinic in Gaza was destroyed after an Israeli airstrike hit an adjacent building.
On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. As of Friday, at least 2,800 people had been killed on both sides, the Associated Press reported. The airstrike that impacted the PFPPA location in Gaza was fired on October 8.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is “at war” and has cut off supplies of food, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza. Israel has called up 360,000 army reservists as it prepares for a likely ground offensive into the territory, which has an estimated population of around 2.3 million.
The International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) said in a press release that the destruction of the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association’s (PFPPA) sole center means “completely cutting off their ability to offer healthcare to women who have already been systematically denied sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights by the Israeli occupation.”
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“It was the only clinic PFPPA had in Gaza and IPPF is currently supporting PFPPA to find a safer location to relocate within Gaza and continue delivering services,” an IPPF spokesperson told Newsweek.
PFPPA is a member of the IPPF, with locations in the West Bank areas of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and Halhoul. It also has the one location in Gaza. The U.S. member association to IPPF is the Planned Parenthood Foundation.
PFPPA offered various services, including family planning services, counseling and guidance for women in psychological, legal and social matters, lab tests, maternal, antenatal and post-natal care and infertility services. IPPF confirmed to Newsweek that the Gaza clinic did not offer abortion services.
PFPPA has warned that the blockade on those critical supplies will force over 37,000 pregnant women to give birth with no electricity or medical supplies in Gaza in the coming months, which could lead to life-threatening complications if those patients have no access to delivery or emergency obstetric care services.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen to these women and their newborn babies,” PFPPA Executive Director Ammal Awadallah said in a statement. “Our clinic is unusable and our options to provide referrals to hospitals are decreasing by the hour. I can’t stress enough how dire the situation is and how desperately we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza.”
“Since its establishment in 1964, the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association (PFPPA), our local Member Association in Palestine has worked in the most difficult of circumstances to strengthen and protect the reproductive rights of people living in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem,” IPPF Director-General Alvaro Bermejo said in a Monday statement.
“Our local teams are now contingency planning to address not only the needs of those trapped in Gaza amid escalating violence, but also the more than five million Palestinians currently living under Israeli occupation who will require critical support to continue accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare,” Bermejo said.
PFPPA also noted that the only power plant in Gaza ran out of fuel on Wednesday and that only two of five water plants remain in operation.
“Without clean water, food, basic medicines and vaccines, innocent women and newborn babies will continue to die,” the association said.
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