What's behind recent spate of abandoned newborns in Gaza?

Three newborn babies were recently found in the streets of the Gaza Strip, raising questions about the reasons that could either be related to poverty or to illegitimate relations that the conservative society in Gaza rejects.
A Palestinian woman holds her grandchild as she sits at the entrance of her house to escape the heat during a power cut at Shatti (beach) refugee camp in Gaza City September 15, 2015. Power has been provided to different areas in the impoverished coastal territory in six-hour shifts as Gaza's lone power plant shut its generators on Saturday due to a fuel shortage, energy officials said. Electricity is also supplied to the Gaza grid through power lines from Israel and Egypt. Gaza's plant provides electricity
A Palestinian woman holds her grandchild as she sits at the entrance of her house to escape the heat during a power cut at Shatti (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Sept. 15, 2015. - REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
MohammedOthman.jpg
Mohammed Othman

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In three separate incidents on Jan. 27, Feb. 4 and Feb. 20, residents in Gaza found three nurslings with unknown parentage left in the streets in the center of Gaza City and in the north of the Gaza Strip. At the end of 2016, another child was found among the olive trees in a deserted region in central Gaza. These cases have opened Pandora’s box.

Al-Monitor's interviews took place before the third baby was found Feb. 20.

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