Director of Israel’s national bank says the country could be short thousands of liters of breast milk should full-scale war break out with Hezbollah in the north.
Hundreds of paper hearts and stars adorn the walls of the Sussman Family Foundation Human Milk Bank. On each is the name of a woman who donated breast milk for babies other than her own.
These paper hearts and stars exploded in number immediately after October 7, when many infants no longer had access to human milk because their mothers had been murdered, wounded, taken captive to Gaza or called up for reserve military duty.
Thanks to a flood of donations, the milk bank has so far provided around two tons of human milk to these babies.
However, donations have largely dried up as the war has dragged on, and most of those babies — eligible for the donated milk for only six months — have been shifted to formula or cow’s milk.
“We still have some reserves, but I am somewhat worried about the future. If there is a major second phase to the war and a need for thousands of more liters, there will be problems,” said the bank’s director, Dr. Sharron Bransburg-Zabary.
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