KHAN YOUNIS: Nearly seven months pregnant, Yasmine Siam couldn’t sleep, living in a crowded tent camp in Gaza and shaken often by Israeli bombardment. She couldn’t find proper food and hadn’t eaten meat for more than a month. Weak and losing weight, she saw doctors every day. There was little they could do.
One night this month, pain shot through her. She worried labor was starting but was too terrified of gunfire to leave her tent. Siam waited till daybreak to walk to the nearest mobile clinic. The medics told her to go to Nasser Hospital, miles away.
She had to take a donkey cart, jolted by every bump in the bombed-out roads. Exhausted, the 24-year-old found a wall to lean on for the hourslong wait for a doctor.
An ultrasound showed her baby was fine. Siam had a urinary tract infection and was underweight: 57 kilos (125 pounds), down 6 kilos (13 pounds) from weeks earlier. The doctor prescribed medicine and told her what every other doctor did: Eat better.
“Where do I get the food?” Siam said, out of breath as she spoke to The Associated Press on April 9 after returning to her tent outside the southern city of Khan Younis.
“I am not worried about me. I am worried about my son,” she said. “It would be terrible if I lose him.”
With Gaza decimated, miscarriages rise
Siam’s troubled pregnancy has become the norm in Gaza. Israel’s 18-month-old military campaign decimating the territory has made pregnancy and childbirth more dangerous, even fatal, for Palestinian women and their babies.
It has become worse since March 2, when Israel cut off all food, medicine and supplies for Gaza’s more than 2 million people.
Meat, fresh fruits and vegetables are practically nonexistent. Clean water is difficult to find. Pregnant women are among the hundreds of thousands who trudge for miles to find new shelters after repeated Israeli evacuation orders. Many live in tents or overcrowded schools amid sewage and garbage.
Up to 20 percent of Gaza’s estimated 55,000 pregnant women are malnourished, and half face high-risk pregnancies, according to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA. In February and March, at least 20 percent of newborns were born prematurely or suffering from complications or malnutrition.
With the population displaced and under bombardment, comprehensive miscarriage and stillbirth figures are impossible to obtain. Records at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital show miscarriages in January and February were double the same period in 2023.
Dr. Yasmine Shnina, a Doctors Without Borders supervisor of midwives at Nasser Hospital, documented 40 miscarriages a week in recent weeks. She has recorded five women a month dying in childbirth, compared with around two a year before the war.
“We don’t need to wait for future impact. The risks are emerging now,” she said.
A love story in the tents
For Siam and her family, her pregnancy — after a whirlwind, wartime marriage — was a rare joy.
Driven from Gaza City, they had moved three times before settling in the tent city sprawling across the barren coastal region of Muwasi.
Late last summer, they shared a meal with neighbors. A young man from the tent across the way was smitten.
The next day, Hossam Siam asked for Yasmine’s hand in marriage.
She refused initially. “I didn’t expect marriage in war,” she said. “I wasn’t ready to meet someone.”
Hossam didn’t give up. He took her for a walk by the sea. They told each other about their lives. “I accepted,” she said.
On Sept. 15, the groom’s family decorated their tent. Her best friends from Gaza City, dispersed around the territory, watched the wedding online
Within a month, Yasmine Siam was pregnant.
Her family cherished the coming baby. Her mother had grandsons from her two sons but longed for a child from her daughters. Siam’s older sister had been trying for 15 years to conceive. Her mother and sister — now back in Gaza City — sent baby essentials.
From the start, Siam struggled to get proper nutrition, relying on canned food.
After a ceasefire began in January, she and Hossam moved to Rafah. On Feb, 28, she had a rare treat: a chicken, shared with her in-laws. It was her last time eating meat.
A week later, Hossam walked for miles searching for chicken. He returned empty-handed.
‘Even the basics are impossible’
Israel has leveled much of Gaza with its air and ground campaign and has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
In Gaza’s ruins, being pregnant is a formidable struggle.
It’s not just about quantity of food, said Rosalie Bollen, of UNICEF, “it’s also about nutritional diversity, the fact that they have been living in very dire, unsanitary conditions, sleeping on the ground, sleeping in the cold and just being stuck in this permanent state of very toxic stress.”
Nine of the 14 hospitals providing maternal health services before the war still function, though only partially, according to UNFPA.
Because many medical facilities are dislocated by Israeli military operations or must prioritize critical patients, women often can’t get screenings that catch problems early in pregnancy, said Katy Brown, of Doctors Without Borders-Spain.
That leads to complications. A quarter of the nearly 130 births a day in February and March required surgical deliveries, UNFPA says.
“Even the basics are impossible,” Brown said.
Under the blockade, over half the medicines for maternal and newborn care have run out, including ones that control bleeding and induce labor, the Health Ministry says. Diapers are scarce. Some women reuse them, turning them inside out, leading to severe skin infections, aid workers say.
Israel says the blockade aims to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages. Rights groups call it a “starvation tactic” endangering the entire population and a potential war crime.
At Nasser Hospital’s maternity ward, Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra witnessed things go from bad to worse.
Israeli forces raided the hospital in early 2024, claiming it housed Hamas fighters. Incubators in a warehouse were wrecked. The maternity ward was rebuilt into Gaza’s largest and best equipped for emergencies.
Since Israel broke the two-month ceasefire on March 18, the hospital has been flooded with wounded.
Up to 15 premature babies at a time need respirators, but the hospital has only two CPAP machines to keep preemies breathing. Some are put on adult respirators, often leading to death, Al-Farra said.
Twenty CPAP machines languish outside Gaza, unable to enter because of the blockade, along with 54 ultrasounds, nine incubators and midwifery kits, according to the UN
A lack of cleaning supplies makes hygiene nearly impossible. After giving birth, women and newborns weakened by hunger frequently suffer infections causing long-term complications, or even death, said Al-Farra.
Yasmine Zakout was rushed to Nasser Hospital in early April after giving birth prematurely to twin girls. One girl died within days, and her sister died last week, both from sepsis.
Before the war, Al-Farra said he would maybe see one child a year with necrotizing pneumonia, a severe infection that kills lung tissue.
“In this war, I treated 50 cases,” Al-Farra said. He removed parts of the lungs in nearly half those babies. At least four died.
Pregnant women are regularly among the wounded.
Khaled Alserr, a surgeon at Nasser Hospital, told of treating a four months pregnant woman after an April 16 strike. Shrapnel had torn through her uterus. The fetus couldn’t be saved, he said, and pregnancy will be risky the rest of her life. Two of her children were among 10 children killed in the strike, he said.
The stress of the war
In her sixth month of pregnancy, Siam walked and rode a donkey cart for miles back to a tent in Muwasi after Israel ordered Rafah evacuated.
With food even scarcer, she turned to charity kitchens distributing meals of plain rice or pasta.
Weakened, she fell down a lot. Stress was mounting — the misery of tent life, the separation from her mother, the terror of airstrikes, the fruitless visits to clinics.
“I just wish a doctor would tell me, ‘Your weight is good.’ I’m always malnourished,” she told the AP, almost pleading.
Hours after her scare on April 9, Siam was still in pain. She made her fifth visit to the mobile clinic in two days. They told her to go to her tent and rest.
She started spotting. Her mother-in-law held her up as they walked to a field hospital in the dead of night.
At 3 a.m., the doctors said there was nothing she could do but wait. Her mother arrived from Gaza City.
Eight hours later, the fetus was stillborn. Her mother told her not to look at the baby. Her mother-in-law said he was beautiful.
Her husband took their boy to a grave.
Days later, she told the AP she breaks down when she sees photos of herself pregnant. She can’t bear to see anyone and refuses her husband’s suggestions to take walks by the sea, where they sealed their marriage.
She wishes she could turn back time, even for just a week.
“I would take him into my heart, hide him and hold on to him.”
She plans to try for another baby.
Pregnant woman under Israel’s blockade in Gaza’s ruins fears for her baby
https://arab.news/v6u8x
Pregnant woman under Israel’s blockade in Gaza’s ruins fears for her baby

- It’s become worse since Israel seven weeks ago cut off food, medicine and supplies for the territory’s more than 2 million people
- According to the United Nations Population Fund, up to 20 percent of Gaza’s estimated 55,000 pregnant women are malnourished, and half face high-risk pregnancies
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, a human rights group says

- US to strike Iran ”will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, a human rights group said Monday.
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 380 civilians and 253 security force personnel being killed.
Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.
Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. On Saturday, Iran’s Health Ministry said some 400 Iranians had been killed and another 3,056 wounded in the Israeli strikes.
What do we know about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities?

- Tehran says damage limited, no radiation leaks after Trump declares Iran’s uranium-enrichment capabilities destroyed
- Assault involved 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft
DUBAI: Amid mounting speculation, the US launched air strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday.
The operation aimed to support Israel in its war against Iran — ongoing since June 13 — by crippling Tehran’s uranium enrichment capacity, according to Asharq News.
US President Donald Trump later announced that Iran’s uranium-enrichment abilities had been eliminated, warning Tehran against any “retaliatory response.” Tehran, however, described the damage as “limited” and dismissed any indications of radiation leaks.

The US strikes included 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft, in an operation the top US general, General Dan Caine, said was named “Operation Midnight.”
Asharq News reported that the strikes targeted three critical nuclear facilities instrumental in Iran’s nuclear fuel cycle: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear complex.
These sites span the entire fuel-enrichment chain — from raw uranium conversion, through enrichment, to the production of fuel and technical components for research reactors.
FASTFACTS:
• The first B-2 bomber was publicly displayed on Nov. 22, 1988, but its first flight was on July 17, 1989.
• The combat effectiveness of the B-2 was proved in the Balkans, where it was responsible for destroying 33 percent of all Serbian targets in the first eight weeks.
• In support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the B-2 flew one of its longest missions to date from Whiteman to Afghanistan and back.
• The B-2 completed its first-ever combat deployment in Iraq, flying 22 sorties and releasing more than 1.5 million pounds of munitions.

Fordo facility
Location and structure: Fordo is 30 kilometers northeast of Qom, embedded within a mountain at an altitude of approximately 1,750 m, with over 80 meters of rock and volcanic shielding — making it one of Iran’s most fortified sites.
Technical role: It houses two underground halls that can hold about 3,000 IR-1 centrifuges, enriching uranium up to 60 percent — a level nearing weapons -grade.
Strategic importance: It is a primary target in any military effort to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear military capability, due to its high capacity and protection.

Natanz reactor
Location and structure: Situated near Kashan in central Iran, partially buried under about 8 meters of earth with a 220meter-thick concrete roof, naturally shielded by surrounding mountainous terrain.
Technical role: Contains primary and experimental plants with over 14,000 centrifuges (IR-1, IR-2m, IR-4, IR-6), making it Iran’s main industrial enrichment hub.
Strategic importance: Responsible for producing most of Iran’s low-enriched uranium and plays a key role in centrifuge development.

Isfahan nuclear complex
Location and structure: Located south of Isfahan on an arid plateau away from populated areas, it is neither buried nor heavily fortified.
Technical role: Includes a Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF); a research reactor fuel production plant; and a metallic fuel pelletizing plant, and three research reactors.
Strategic importance: Serves as the backbone of Iran’s nuclear research and production infrastructure, supplying both Natanz and Fordo.
The Pentagon used some of the world’s most advanced aircraft for Saturday’s strikes. The B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions.
The bomber represents a major milestone in the US bomber modernization program. The B-2 brings massive firepower to bear anywhere on the globe through seemingly impenetrable defenses.

According to US officials, the bombers that carried out the Iran strikes flew for nearly 37 hours non-stop from its Missouri base, refueling in mid-air multiple times before striking in the early hours of Sunday.
A B-2 bomber offers several key advantages, primarily due to its stealth capabilities and global reach.
• A range over 11,000 km without refueling, capable of global reach from distant American bases.
• Stealth abilities such as flying-wing design and radar-absorbing materials that allow it to evade air defenses.
• It can carry both nuclear and conventional weapons, including the GBU‑57 bunker-buster bomb.
Initial reports quoted by Asharq News indicated that Fordo was hit with the GBU‑57, the most powerful US conventional bunker buster, designed for deeply buried targets like Fordo, which lies 90 meters underground. Fox News reported six bunker-busting bombs were dropped on Fordo, alongside approximately 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at Natanz and Isfahan.
The GBU‑57 ‘Massive Ordnance Penetrator’ was designed by American military engineers to devastate deeply buried bunkers without radioactive fallout. It was the only nonnuclear weapon that could reach Iran’s hardest target.
• Weight: ~13,600 kg
• Length: 6.2 meters.
• Diameter: 0.8 meters.
• Explosive payload: 2,400 kg of high explosives.
• Guidance: GPS + inertial navigation.
* Penetration: Up to 60 meters of reinforced concrete or dense rock.
A Tomahawk cruise missile is a precision weapon that launches from ships, submarines and ground launchers and can strike targets precisely from a great distance, even in heavily defended airspace.
• Range: 1,250–2,500 km depending on variant.
• Speed: Subsonic (~880 km/h).
• Guidance: Inertial navigation, GPS, with some variants using terminal guidance (TERCOM, DSMAC).
• Warhead: ~450 kg conventional explosives.
• Launch platforms: Ships and submarines.
There has been a torrent of responses to the US move against Iran, Asharq News reported. President Trump declared the mission’s success, stating that the Fordo facility was “gone,” and Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment sites “completely and utterly destroyed.” Later on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes were an incredible and overwhelming success that have “obliterated Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.”
For its part, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency quoted an official saying the nuclear sites had been evacuated in advance, and the damage was “not irreparable.” The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran stated there was “no risk of any radiation leak.” Iran emphasized its nuclear industry would not be halted.
Israel rejects critical EU report ahead of ministers’ meeting

- European nations have been increasingly critical of the massive civilian toll of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli communities
BRUSSELS: Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document ... and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
European nations have been increasingly critical of the massive civilian toll of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli communities.
Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid killed in airstrike

- The airstrike targeted the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought
- It said another 22 people were wounded while waiting for aid trucks
TEL AVIV: At least four Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike and 22 were wounded while waiting for humanitarian aid, according to a local hospital.
The airstrike targeted the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
It said another 22 people were wounded while waiting for aid trucks.
Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds seeking desperately needed food, killing hundreds of people in recent weeks.
The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said suspiciously approached its forces.
Separately, World Central Kitchen, the charity run by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said it had resumed the distribution of hot meals in Gaza for the first time in six weeks after shutting down because of Israel’s blockade, which was loosened last month amid fears of famine.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said that it had recovered the remains of three hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
The military identified the remains as those of Yonatan Samerano, 21; Ofra Keidar, 70; and Shay Levinson, 19.
All three were killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel that ignited the ongoing war.
Hamas is still holding 50 hostages, fewer than half of them believed to be alive.
The military did not provide any details about the recovery operation, and it was unclear if the airstrike was related to it.
“The campaign to return the hostages continues consistently and is happening alongside the campaign against Iran,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Kobi Samerano said in a Facebook post that his son’s remains were returned on what would have been Yonatan’s 23rd birthday.
Militants killed some 1,200 people, and abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7 attack.
More than half the hostages have been returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals, eight have been rescued alive, and Israeli forces have recovered dozens of bodies.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said that women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Hostages Families Forum, the main organization representing families of the hostages, has repeatedly called for a deal to release the remaining captives.
“Particularly against the backdrop of current military developments, we want to emphasize that bringing back the remaining 50 hostages is the key to achieving any sort of victory,” it said in a statement on Sunday.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire, and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Netanyahu has rejected those terms, saying Israel will continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile.
Even then, he has said Israel will maintain lasting control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population, plans the Palestinians and others view as forcible expulsion.
The US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release after Israel ended a truce in March with a surprise wave of airstrikes.
Those talks appear to have made little progress as Israel has expanded its air and ground offensive.
Twenty killed in suicide bombing at Damascus church

- It was the first suicide bombing in Damascus since Bashar Assad was toppled
- Syria’s interior ministry said the suicide bomber was a member of Daesh group
At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Syria’s capital Damascus on Sunday, health authorities and security sources said.
It was the first suicide bombing in Damascus since Bashar Assad was toppled in December. Syria’s interior ministry said the suicide bomber was a member of Daesh (Islamic State). He entered the church, opened fire and then detonated his explosive vest, a ministry statement added.
A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two men were involved in the attack, including the one who blew himself up.
Daesh has been behind several attempted attacks on churches in Syria since Assad’s fall, but this was the first to succeed, another security source told Reuters.
Syria’s state news agency cited the health ministry as saying that 52 people were also injured in the blast.
A livestream from the site by Syria’s civil defense, the White Helmets, showed scenes of destruction from inside the church, including a bloodied floor and shattered pews and masonry.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who led the offensive against Assad before taking over in January for a transitional phase, has repeatedly said he will protect minorities.
“We unequivocally condemn the abhorrent terrorist suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, Syria,” the Greek foreign ministry said in a statement.
“We demand that the Syrian transitional authorities take immediate action to hold those involved accountable and implement measures to guarantee the safety of Christian communities and all religious groups, allowing them to live without fear.”
Daesh had previously targeted religious minorities, including a major attack on Shiite pilgrims in Sayeda Zainab in 2016 — one of the most notorious bombings during Assad’s rule.
The latest assault underscores the group’s continued ability to exploit security gaps despite the collapse of its territorial control and years of counterterrorism efforts.