A devastating drop in birth rates across Gaza is raising urgent concerns about a “silent genocide” taking place amid the ongoing war. Dr. Munir Al-Barsh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, warned that the decline is not only a health emergency but a deliberate assault on Palestinian life itself, one that begins before birth.

According to data released by the Ministry, the first half of 2025 recorded only 17,000 births, a staggering 41.4% drop compared to the same period in 2022. “The war in Gaza hasn’t just destroyed buildings; it has reached the wombs,” said Dr. Al-Barsh in a statement to Safa News Agency. “This is a war against the future, targeting fetuses, mothers, and the most fundamental right to life.”

The figures are harrowing: 2,600 miscarriages, 220 maternal deaths, 1,460 premature births, and more than 2,500 newborns needing intensive care. At least 1,600 babies were born underweight, and 67 with congenital deformities. Twenty-one newborns died on the day they were born. Each number, Al-Barsh said, represents a life crushed under siege, hunger, and trauma.

Dr. Al-Barsh called the situation a form of “invisible warfare,” suggesting it may be part of a broader strategy of ethnic cleansing aimed at eliminating the Palestinian people by indirect means. He described it as “a slow and deliberate erasure, a silent genocide written in blood and absence.”

Women across Gaza are giving birth in unimaginable conditions: under bombardment, in tents, without clean water, medical care, or proper nutrition. Every newborn’s cry is a miracle of survival in a land where hope itself is under siege.

Gaza’s health authorities are once again urging the international community to actn, not just to halt the ongoing war, but to protect the very possibility of a Palestinian future.