Gaza’s health system for mothers and newborns has been “decimated,” the UN said on Thursday, with Israeli attacks destroying nearly all hospitals, severing medical supplies, and triggering sharp increases in maternal deaths, miscarriages, and newborn fatalities amid mass displacement and widespread hunger.
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has warned that Gaza’s maternal and newborn healthcare system has been virtually destroyed, reporting that 94 per cent of the territory’s hospitals have been damaged or reduced to rubble, leaving pregnant women and newborns with almost no access to essential care.
“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,” the OHCHR said.
According to the agency, by late 2024 women in Gaza were three times more likely to die in childbirth and three times more likely to miscarry compared to pre-war levels, with newborn deaths rising sharply as well.
Israeli attacks on maternity wards and neonatal units have compounded the crisis; a December 2023 strike on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic destroyed over 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm and egg specimens.
Medical staff have faced extreme danger. OHCHR, citing figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, noted that 1,722 healthcare workers had been killed as of September 2025.
Gynecologist Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, who volunteered in Gaza, described the conditions to OHCHR and said, “As we did our rounds, bombs were going off in the background… Sometimes quadcopters would come in and try to shoot nurses or literally chase them through the hospital corridors.”
She highlighted that many pregnant women arrived with gunshot wounds, including to the abdomen.
“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,” she said.
The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency in November 2024 said its partners in Gaza are reporting a rise in premature births and maternal deaths amid Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave.
“Sexual and reproductive healthcare, including postnatal and family planning services, have become severely limited for 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women, who face serious health risks due to a lack of prenatal and postnatal care,” the agency said.
In April 2024, the UN Population Fund said that a healthy pregnancy in Gaza is no longer feasible.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe.
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