When Rana learned she was pregnant, she felt joy—followed quickly by fear.

After two years of relentless war, Gaza’s health system has been shattered. Only a fraction of health facilities remain functional, and very few can provide emergency obstetric and newborn care. Health workers have been displaced, medicines are scarce, and neonatal units are overwhelmed, operating far beyond capacity with too few incubators and trained staff.

For Rana—and the estimated 55,000 pregnant women across Gaza seeking care–the question was not if her baby would be born but where–and if they would survive the delivery.

“As my due date approached, I was terrified,” Rana recalls. “I didn’t know how I could bring a child into this world under these conditions.”

Like most of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents, Rana is displaced, living in a makeshift tent, exposed to the bitter winter conditions and heavy rains. Recent flooding has washed away shelters, destroyed belongings, and left families cold and soaked. The risks of respiratory infections, diarrhoeal disease, hepatitis, and hypothermia have increased sharply.  Pregnant women, new mothers and newborns are among those most at risk. In Khan Younis, a two-week-old baby recently died from hypothermia.

“I thought I would have to give birth in a tent,” Rana says.

A lifeline when it mattered most

At a moment when Gaza’s health system was stretched beyond its limits, King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) stepped in. Through a US$1.5 million partnership with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, KSrelief supported the restoration of critical maternal and newborn health services. This included rehabilitating damaged facilities—such as Al Khair Hospital and the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital—supplying essential medicines and equipment, and enabling health workers to return by covering salaries and strengthening frontline capacity.

For Rana, the support meant everything. She was able to give birth safely—not in a flooded tent, but in a functional hospital, surrounded by trained staff and the equipment needed for a safe delivery.

At the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital, Midwife Nabila Masaoud was with Rana throughout her labour. She remembers how precarious conditions were before the facility was rehabilitated.

“There were very few health workers, and much of the equipment had been damaged,” she says. “If a woman developed complications during childbirth, there was a real risk she would not survive. The support from KSrelief and UNFPA changed that. We were able to bring health workers back, cover their salaries, and replace equipment we had lost during the war.”

The KSrelief-UNFPA partnership has delivered immediate, measurable results for women and girls most in need in Gaza. More than 20,400 women and girls have already accessed essential reproductive health services, including safe delivery and maternal health care, with many more expected to be reached.

For women in labour, this support has meant access to skilled care, functioning delivery rooms, and emergency support when complications arise.

“Every woman deserves a safe delivery,” says Midwife Nabila. “KSrelief made that possible.”

At a time when access to safe childbirth is severely limited, the partnership has helped keep essential maternal and newborn services operating. By supporting health facilities, medical staff and critical supplies, KSrelief’s contribution has enabled women to give birth with skilled care, even in extremely challenging conditions. As humanitarian needs in Gaza remain overwhelming, this support is helping protect mothers and newborns at a moment when it matters most.