Amid violence and displacement: a reproductive health crisis in Gaza – OHCHR

عربي

11 December 2025

Over two years of Israeli attacks, chronic displacement, siege, and starvation have devastated the lives of women in Gaza and eroded whatever control they had over their lives, futures, and bodies, with a devastating impact on women’s reproductive health and rights.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed over 70,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023. It has also damaged or destroyed 94 per cent of Gaza’s hospitals, largely denying women access to essential health care, including reproductive healthcare. The Israeli blockade has also prevented the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including medical supplies and nutrients required to sustain pregnancies and ensure safe childbirth.

As a result, women were three times more likely to die from child birth and three times more likely to miscarry in Gaza by October 2024 compared to before 7 October 2023. Newborn deaths have increased, including at least 21 babies who died on their first day of life as of 30 June 2025. And births have dropped by a staggering 41 per cent in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2022, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

In January of 2024, the International Court of Justice issued binding provisional measures for Israel, the first of which was to “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of the Genocide Convention, in particular : (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

A decimated healthcare system:

Israeli attacks on hospitals have hit maternity wards and destroyed or damaged Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). In December 2023, Israeli shelling also struck the Al Basma IVF Centre — Gaza’s largest fertility clinic — leading to the loss of over 4,000 embryos and 1,000 specimens of sperm and unfertilized eggs.

The decision of when and how to deliver a baby has often become dictated by security concerns, bed space, Israeli displacement orders, or shortages of anesthesia, according to accounts by patients and doctors.

Israeli Forces have engaged in what appears to be the deliberate targeting and killing of medical personnel, with 1,722 healthcare workers killed as of 24 September 2025, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health— which further undermined access to essential, life-saving healthcare for the women of Gaza.

“As we did our rounds, bombs were going off in the background. One time, a nurse was shot in the head through the window in Nasser [Medical Complex in Khan Younis – the largest hospital in southern Gaza]. Sometimes quadcopters would come in and try to shoot nurses or literally chase them through the hospital corridors,” Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, a gynecologist who volunteered in Gaza in July of 2025, told the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Gendered impacts of violence:

Israeli military attacks also killed or gravely injured women, including pregnant women. At least 10,417 women were killed, and 23,769 were injured between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

“I cared for pregnant women who had been shot in various locations, including the abdomen,” Dr Sleemi said. “Many women were simply too injured to survive. If their injuries did not claim their lives, then sepsis often did, as there were not enough medical supplies or antibiotics to treat the preventable infections that followed.”

Thousands of Palestinians, including women, have also been arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces from Gaza and the West Bank, amid documented patterns of torture and ill-treatment, including physical and sexual violence. These include cases of rape of men and boys, sexual assault and harassment of women detainees, and the denial of sexual healthcare services to survivors.

Violations were also reported during the 7 and 8 October 2023 attacks by Palestinian armed groups in Israel. At least 1,124 people were killed, reportedly including over 300 women. And 251 were taken hostage, including women. Serious accounts describe sexual violence committed by members of Palestinian armed groups against women during the attacks, as well as ill-treatment, including incidents of sexual violence experienced or witnessed by hostages while in captivity.

All such violations, by all parties, must be thoroughly, impartially and independently investigated, with perpetrators held to account, and reparation afforded to victims and survivors.

Under siege:

In addition to the scarcity of medical supplies and food, the Israeli blockade on Gaza caused severe shortages of baby formula, exacerbating the impact of starvation on newborns. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 463 Palestinians died due to malnutrition in Gaza as of 11 October 2025, including 157 children.

As the occupying power, Israel has the obligation to ensure Palestinians have access to the necessities of life and can exercise the rights protected under international law, including human rights law. This includes access to adequate healthcare and the ability to exercise reproductive rights in safety and dignity.

Unimaginable loss:

Hungry, displaced, and living under the constant threat of bombing without adequate medical support, Palestinian women’s reproductive journeys — from conception to childbirth and caring for newborns — have become perilous at every stage and, for many, impossible to survive. The demographic and emotional toll of the crisis is compounded by the unprecedented number of children killed over the past two years, which reached 20,179 by 7 October 2025. This figure continues to increase even after the ceasefire.

“Almost every pregnant woman I treated who had other children said she had already lost a child in the war,” Dr Sleemi said. “The collective pain and sorrow were overwhelming and ever-present.”