Every morning in western Deir el-Balah, Eman Huneidq leaves her tent with her nine-month-old daughter, Ward, and travels to the Mother and Child Corner at Hikr al-Jame’ Health Centre. Her journey is not simply a search for breastfeeding advice. It is an attempt to protect her child while living through displacement, hunger, poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare and continuing uncertainty.
Eman, 38, has diabetes and a blood-clotting condition. After 14 years without a child because of her health problems, she discovered her pregnancy only when she was five months pregnant. By then, the war had already disrupted access to healthcare and food. She was displaced from northern Gaza to Deir el-Balah, where she faced the challenges of pregnancy without stable shelter, adequate nutrition or reliable medical support.
Ward was born prematurely and spent 10 days in hospital. After childbirth, Eman developed painful cracks in her breasts, making breastfeeding difficult. She briefly relied on infant formula, but formula was expensive, scarce and dependent on clean water. The creams and medicines needed to treat her condition were also difficult to obtain.
“Dealing with the cracks made breastfeeding very difficult for me. I struggled to cope with my condition and couldn’t find the right support or suitable medical creams,”
Eman Huneidq says.
Her experience shows why breastfeeding in Gaza must be understood as a humanitarian and public-health issue rather than a private maternal responsibility. A mother’s ability to breastfeed depends on her physical health, food intake, hydration, rest, privacy, emotional wellbeing and access to trained medical workers. War has damaged or removed nearly all of those conditions.
Breastfeeding in Gaza and the collapse of support systems
The Mother and Child Corner supports approximately 400 to 500 women every month. It offers guidance on breastfeeding techniques, maternal nutrition, self-care and infant care. It also provides a space where women can discuss pain, grief, fear and anxiety.
The centre’s approach recognises that breastfeeding cannot be sustained by mothers alone. Women in Gaza are often caring for several children, collecting water, searching for food and living in overcrowded tents. Husbands, relatives and other family members must therefore help mothers rest, manage household responsibilities and create a safer environment for feeding infants.
“We do not limit the service to counselling the woman. We work with the whole family,”
breastfeeding specialist Sabreen al-Buhaisi says.
This approach is important because the language of maternal resilience can sometimes conceal the absence of institutional support. Mothers may appear to be coping, but they are doing so by carrying responsibilities that should be shared by families, health systems, humanitarian agencies and political authorities.
The centre is therefore more than a breastfeeding clinic. It is also a small protection and mental-health space within a wider humanitarian emergency. Its services connect infant feeding with nutrition, family support, psychological care and access to health referrals.
Hunger affects both mother and child
Eman’s family has no income and depends on a community kitchen for food. Meat and fruit may be present in local markets, but their prices are unaffordable. Counsellors advise mothers to rely on more accessible foods such as lentils, beans and chickpeas, along with available nutritional supplements.
This advice is useful, but it also exposes the structural nature of the crisis. Mothers are being taught how to adapt to food scarcity rather than receiving the diverse and regular diet needed after childbirth. A mother who is breastfeeding requires food and water for her own health, yet the humanitarian response often measures success primarily through children’s nutrition.
In July, the United Nations reported that food security and child nutrition had improved across Gaza because of increased humanitarian assistance and commercial traffic. However, the gains remained fragile. In the coming year, approximately 74,000 children were expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition, while roughly 25,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were expected to need nutrition support.
The figures are a reminder that improved food-security classifications do not mean that families are safe. Progress can coexist with hunger, anaemia and the daily fear that aid deliveries will again decline.
The World Food Programme’s assessment reflects this uncertainty:
“There is progress on food security in Gaza, but it is fragile and can easily be reversed,”
WFP Acting Executive Director Carl Skau says.
For breastfeeding mothers, fragile food gains mean fragile milk-feeding decisions. A temporary food distribution may help a family for several days, but it cannot replace a reliable food system, functioning markets, safe water networks and secure livelihoods.
Formula is not an easy alternative
Some mothers in Gaza have turned to formula because of pain, psychological distress, fear of insufficient milk or the belief that poor nutrition makes breastfeeding impossible. Yet formula is increasingly difficult to access and safely prepare.
“Some women tell us, ‘Because of my psychological state and because I am not eating enough, I cannot breastfeed,’”
breastfeeding specialist Iman Abu Ouda says.
The centre explains that many women can continue breastfeeding despite severe hardship, but it does not dismiss the reality of hunger. Mothers may be physically exhausted, medically unwell or traumatised. They may also lack the privacy and rest necessary to establish or maintain breastfeeding.
“The food situation is still very poor. Some women turn to formula, even at a time when it was rare, very expensive, and difficult to find,”
Abu Ouda says.
The important issue is not whether breastfeeding should be morally preferred over formula. The issue is whether mothers have safe and informed choices. Breastfeeding can reduce the risks associated with contaminated water and unsterilised bottles, but women who require formula for medical or personal reasons must not be blamed.
Formula preparation requires clean water, fuel, sterilised bottles, safe storage and a dependable supply. These conditions are severely compromised in Gaza. OCHA reported that infant-formula prices rose by 8 percent in July, while the price of baby diapers increased by 12 percent. Gaza’s overall prices were estimated to be 209 percent above pre-October 2023 levels in the August humanitarian update.
A family without income cannot easily absorb those increases. The cost of formula therefore reflects more than inflation; it represents the combined effects of restricted imports, damaged infrastructure, unemployment, humanitarian shortages and reduced purchasing power.
Maternal health is deteriorating
The crisis surrounding breastfeeding is part of a broader emergency affecting pregnancy, childbirth and newborn survival. OCHA reported that more than 3,950 miscarriage cases were recorded in Gaza during the first six months of 2026. The miscarriage rate reached 208.5 per 1,000 live births, 3.3 times higher than the rate recorded during the second half of 2025. It peaked at 377.3 per 1,000 live births in April.
Nearly 74 percent of pregnancy losses occurred during the first trimester. At the same time, 57.1 percent of pregnant women were anaemic, severe maternal morbidity reached 82 cases per 1,000 deliveries and caesarean sections accounted for 49.2 percent of births. Haemorrhage, hypertension and infections were responsible for 92 percent of severe maternal complications.
These figures provide essential context for Eman’s story. She was managing diabetes and a blood-clotting condition while displaced and struggling to access appropriate care. Her premature baby needed hospital treatment, and she later faced painful breastfeeding complications without the medicines she required.
The effects of poor maternal health continue after delivery. Anaemia, stress, undernutrition, infection, premature birth and inadequate postnatal support can affect both mother and infant. The first months of a child’s life are particularly vulnerable, yet Gaza’s mothers are trying to provide care in tents and collective shelters surrounded by insecurity and deprivation.
Médecins Sans Frontières reported that between January 2024 and March 2026, it admitted 4,950 children under 15 for malnutrition-related care. The organisation also reported that more than half of women were malnourished at some point during pregnancy and that 25 percent remained malnourished during delivery.
Grief and displacement shape infant feeding
Hiba al-Masri, 23, is caring for her three-month-old son, Yusuf, after losing her third daughter when the baby was only 20 days old during the early months of the conflict. She lives in a tent with her husband’s extended family, where 15 people share the same space.
Overcrowding deprives her of privacy, while caring for several children limits her opportunities to rest. Her breastfeeding journey is shaped not only by nutrition and hygiene but also by bereavement and psychological trauma.
“Sometimes you are tired, and there is so much you have to do, but you still have to take care of the baby,”
Hiba al-Masri says.
Her experience challenges the assumption that breastfeeding support can be delivered through technical instructions alone. A mother grieving the death of a child may need psychological assistance, protection, rest and social support before she can confidently care for another infant.
Hiba says that Yusuf’s health improved after she received help at the Mother and Child Corner. She also describes breastfeeding as more practical than formula in an environment where clean water, money and supplies are scarce.
“Breastfeeding is a million times better than formula,”
Hiba says.
Her statement expresses her own experience, not a universal rule. In Gaza, some mothers may be able to breastfeed but still require nutritional assistance, while others may need safe alternatives because of medical conditions, medication, trauma or difficulties affecting the infant. A humane policy must protect both options without turning infant feeding into a test of maternal worth.
Water insecurity places infants at risk
The living conditions described by Eman reveal the connection between breastfeeding, sanitation and protection. Water must be carried to the tent, while sand, dirt, insects and rodents surround her baby.
“The most important thing for kids is hygiene and clean space, but we do not have that at all in the tents,”
Eman says.
She remains near Ward while the baby sleeps because she fears insects or rats may approach. This constant vigilance adds another layer of psychological and physical exhaustion to an already demanding caregiving role.
The August OCHA report found that 90 percent of Gaza’s population was experiencing frequent and unpredictable disruptions in access to safe, clean and reliable water for drinking, cooking and hygiene. Water insecurity was recorded among 92 percent of surveyed households in Gaza City, 90 percent in Khan Younis and 87 percent in Deir el-Balah.
The situation in collective shelters is also hazardous. An assessment of 181 collective centres found that they hosted approximately 28,000 households, or 138,258 people. Sixty-nine percent reported visible sewage inside the compound, while several sites reported rodent infestations. Eighty percent lacked functional lighting.
These conditions affect breastfeeding mothers even when they do not directly prevent breastfeeding. They increase the risk of disease, make hygiene difficult and undermine maternal sleep. For mothers using formula, the risks are even more direct because contaminated water and unsterilised feeding equipment can expose infants to diarrhoeal disease and malnutrition.
Humanitarian assistance has prevented worse outcomes
Despite the scale of destruction, humanitarian organisations have expanded several essential services. During the first six months of 2026, UNICEF and its partners reported that more than 1.15 million people accessed safe drinking water through emergency water trucking, while 516,000 people received sanitation services and 487,000 children and women accessed primary healthcare.
More than 11,000 small and sick newborns received specialised inpatient care, 19,425 children were screened and treated for acute malnutrition, and 163,000 caregivers received infant and young-child feeding counselling.
These interventions show that humanitarian access produces measurable results. When food, water, health services and counselling reach families, nutrition indicators can improve. But the scale of assistance remains vulnerable to crossing restrictions, insecurity, funding shortfalls and damage to local infrastructure.
The United Nations has warned that progress could rapidly reverse without sustained access, funding and recovery support. “Acute malnutrition has fallen, but many children are still going hungry, and some children may never fully recover from prolonged lack of proper nutrition,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell says.
During the August reporting period, Kerem Shalom remained the only operational cargo crossing. Aid offloading improved to 87 percent, but the Egyptian corridor recorded a 72 percent offloading rate because of truck returns and rejections. Commercial supplies remained inconsistent, while inflation continued to reduce families’ ability to purchase food and infant-care products.
Food aid cannot replace recovery
Emergency food distributions are necessary, but they cannot create lasting food security. Gaza’s food system, healthcare network, water infrastructure and local livelihoods must be rebuilt if mothers are to have sustainable access to nutrition.
“Food security in Gaza cannot recover unless local food production starts again and farmers, herders, fishers and other producers can rebuild their livelihoods,”
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu says.
This position is directly relevant to breastfeeding mothers. A mother needs regular access to food, clean water and healthcare, not occasional assistance that may disappear the following week. Restoring agriculture, fishing, markets, water systems and household incomes would give families more control over infant feeding and reduce dependence on emergency distributions.
The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have also called for fuel, water-treatment supplies, spare parts, medicines and other materials to enter Gaza. Without these supplies, hospitals, water facilities, bakeries and community kitchens cannot operate reliably.
Humanitarian access is therefore not merely a logistical issue. It determines whether a mother can obtain food, whether a clinic can treat breast infections, whether a family can boil water and whether a premature infant can receive specialised care.
Mothers are carrying the cost of war
The women featured in the report are expected to breastfeed while grieving, managing illness, caring for several children, collecting water and protecting infants from unsafe surroundings. Their resilience is extraordinary, but it should not be mistaken for evidence that the humanitarian crisis is manageable.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov has warned that Gaza’s younger generation faces a future shaped by “occupation, conflict, displacement, violence and profound uncertainty.” He has also pointed to the collapse of essential services, disrupted education and lost livelihoods.
For infants and mothers, that collapse appears in intimate forms: a broken water network becomes unsafe formula preparation; a closed crossing becomes unavailable medicine; inflation becomes an empty food basket; a damaged hospital becomes a dangerous delivery; and an overcrowded tent becomes the only place where a woman can feed her child.
Eman’s question captures the moral reality of this crisis:
“We mothers can endure these circumstances, but what is the fault of our children?”
What this crisis demands
The answer cannot be to ask mothers to endure more. Breastfeeding in Gaza requires a response built around maternal rights, infant safety and humanitarian access.
Mothers need adequate food, safe water, medical treatment, privacy, mental-health support and protection from violence. Those who can and want to breastfeed should receive skilled counselling and family assistance. Infants who require formula or specialised feeding support must receive safe, reliable and medically appropriate alternatives.
Community centres such as the Mother and Child Corner are essential, but they cannot replace functioning hospitals, stable food markets, clean water networks and secure shelter. Their work is a lifeline, not a substitute for recovery.
The hidden cost of war on mothers is visible in every feeding decision. It is visible when a woman cannot obtain a cream for painful cracks, when formula is unavailable, when food prices rise beyond reach, when a child sleeps beside sewage and rodents, and when grief makes ordinary care feel impossible.
Breastfeeding in Gaza therefore reveals more than a nutrition crisis. It reveals the collapse of the conditions that make motherhood safe. The international response should measure success not only by the number of meals delivered or children screened, but also by whether mothers can feed their babies with dignity, safety and genuine choice.
