Since the beginning of winter, seven children have died from the cold in the Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On January 14, the American human rights organization Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and its Israeli counterpart Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) released two reports focusing on what they call “reproductive violence” perpetrated by the Israeli state in the Palestinian enclave.
The appalling living conditions endured by hundreds of thousands of Gazans forced to crowd under flooded, wind-torn tents are just one of the many hardships faced by women and newborns detailed in the two studies. Nearly 80% of the enclave’s buildings were destroyed.
The targeting of health facilities and the restriction of essential medical supplies have resulted in famine and acute malnutrition. These Israeli policies have “devastated the reproductive capacity of Gazans,” according to the investigators, hindering fertility among women of childbearing age and causing an increase in pregnancy complications, maternal deaths and infant mortality.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, under the authority of Hamas, recorded 17,000 births in the first six months of 2025, a 41% drop compared to the same period in 2022. During the same period, 2,600 miscarriages were reported, along with 220 deaths related to pregnancy, 1,460 premature births and more than 2,500 infants requiring neonatal intensive care.
These figures are likely a significant underestimate, according to the PHR report, since systematic data collection has been “severely limited” due to the “near-total collapse of Gaza’s health information system after October 7, 2023.” According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), around 150,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were also forcibly displaced, deprived of access to healthcare and basic support services.
Uhhhh duh? Israel seems to do every unthinkable disgusting thing to them. They’re fucking inhumane barbarians.