SAFA- The number of miscarriages in the Gaza Strip has reached alarming levels, with Palestinian health officials warning that Israel's ongoing genocide has triggered a severe reproductive health crisis and raised concerns that conditions imposed on the population are preventing Palestinian births.

Dr. Bassam Zaqout, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Gaza, said that 3,958 miscarriages were recorded across the Strip during the first half of 2026, marking an unprecedented increase.

Zaqout attributed the surge to the catastrophic conditions facing pregnant women under Israel's ongoing genocidal campaign. Repeated displacement, dangerous journeys across destroyed roads, overcrowded shelters, poor sanitation, and the constant threat of Israeli attacks have made safe pregnancies increasingly difficult.

He also cited the lack of hot water, hygiene supplies, and adequate nutrition, along with the spread of infectious diseases in displacement camps. Gaza's devastated healthcare system continues to suffer from acute shortages of medicines, laboratory supplies, diagnostic equipment, and medical personnel, leaving thousands of pregnant women without essential care.

Health Ministry figures illustrate the scale of the crisis. In April alone, 921 miscarriages and 2,004 live births were recorded, equivalent to roughly 460 miscarriages for every 1,000 live births, nearly three times the rate typically reported under normal conditions.

Meanwhile, births have declined sharply. Gaza recorded 5,210 births in January, 3,433 in February, 3,233 in March, and only 2,004 in April. The Ministry of Interior later registered 1,701 births in May. Compared with the 6,076 births recorded in November 2025, April's total represents a decline of approximately 67 percent.

Medical experts caution that the true scale of the crisis is likely far greater, as Israel's destruction of Gaza's healthcare infrastructure has severely undermined the territory's health information system.

Earlier this year, Physicians for Human Rights and the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago warned that the collapse of data collection has made it increasingly difficult to accurately document miscarriages, stillbirths, and maternal deaths, meaning existing figures are likely significant underestimates.

Call for Investigation Into Reproductive Violence

The Gaza Centre for Human Rights said the reproductive health emergency cannot be separated from Israel's systematic destruction of hospitals, maternity wards, primary healthcare centers, and fertility clinics. The organization also pointed to the killing and detention of healthcare workers, widespread malnutrition, restrictions on medical supplies, and the collapse of maternal and neonatal services as major drivers of the crisis.

The center called for an independent international investigation into whether Israeli policies and military actions have deliberately contributed to preventing births among Palestinians in Gaza.

Under Article II of the Genocide Convention, imposing measures intended to prevent births within a protected group constitutes one of the acts that may amount to genocide when carried out with genocidal intent.

The latest figures add to mounting evidence of a worsening reproductive health emergency throughout Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

A January report by Physicians for Human Rights and the University of Chicago documented more than 2,600 miscarriages during the first half of 2025 and found that recorded births had fallen by 41 percent compared with the same period in 2022.

 The researchers linked the decline to attacks on healthcare facilities, restrictions on food and medical supplies, and widespread malnutrition.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has similarly warned that severe hunger, psychological trauma, and the destruction of healthcare services are placing pregnant women and newborns at extreme risk.

 Gaza recorded around 17,000 births during the first half of 2025, compared with approximately 29,000 during the same period in 2022. The agency reported that one-third of newborns were born prematurely, underweight, or required intensive neonatal care.

Earlier this year, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza's healthcare system, including the attack on Al-Basma Fertility Clinic, constituted reproductive violence. The commission found that the destruction of thousands of frozen embryos and other reproductive materials was calculated to prevent Palestinian births and undermine the future existence of the Palestinian population in Gaza.