IT had made sense to Nour Barda and Heba al-Arqan in November 2023 to try for another baby when a temporary truce had just taken hold in the Gaza Strip. Barda’s father, who had only sons, kept asking when he might have a granddaughter at last. Back then, the war seemed like it might end. Back then, there was food, even if it was not enough.
By the time al-Arqan found out she was pregnant last year, things in Gaza were much worse. When she gave birth to Shadia in April, there was so little to eat that al-Arqan, 25, had almost no milk to give. Now she holds Shadia at her breast just to calm her down, Barda said, knowing that nothing is likely to come.
