Health professionals in Gaza say attempts to present selective birth figures risk masking a deepening humanitarian emergency affecting mothers and newborns. While headline numbers are circulated to suggest normality, clinicians on the ground describe a reality shaped by a genocidal war that has hollowed out medical services and left families without reliable care at the most critical moments of life.

Medical records from the territory indicate that roughly 50,000 live births were registered over the past year, a notable fall from previous trends. More telling than the total, doctors argue, is the sharp rise in premature deliveries, low birth weight and infant mortality. Hospitals report hundreds of newborns suffering from congenital conditions, a pattern health workers associate with prolonged siege conditions, environmental exposure and the near-collapse of maternity and neonatal units.

Staff shortages, damaged facilities and severe limits on equipment and medicines have compounded the crisis. Obstetric wards operate intermittently, incubators are scarce, and routine prenatal monitoring has become a luxury for many expectant mothers. In this context, inflating birth statistics, clinicians warn, diverts attention from the measurable deterioration in outcomes and the growing number of preventable deaths linked to the genocidal war.

Health workers insist that the scale of suffering cannot be assessed by population figures alone. The true indicator, they say, lies in the survival and wellbeing of newborns and their mothers—an indicator that continues to worsen as the genocidal war grinds on and essential healthcare remains out of reach for much of the population.