Reproductive violence, this needs to stop

[GiantBranch]

“Israel’s war in Gaza has led to a 41% fall in births in the territory and high numbers of maternal deaths, miscarriages, newborn mortality and premature births, two reports on the impact of the conflict on pregnant women, babies and maternity care reveal.
Two reports by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI) document how the war has led to high figures for maternal and neonatal mortality and forced births in dangerous conditions and systematically dismantled health services – consequences of “a deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians, meeting the legal criteria of the genocide convention,” researchers said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/14/gaza-war-fall-in-births-reproductive-violence

The Guardian. There’s a surprise.

Thanks for sharing.
4000 frozen embryos were destroyed when an IVF Clinic was shelled by the IDF.
Maternity packs are banned by Israel.
Now MSF who assisted at a third of births are banned (as well as in Nicu's)
The mobile maternity units that were fundraised for in Ireland have also been banned by Israel.

It is clear why this study needed to be carried out.

So why not tell Iran, as they are the country that kick off this war by recruiting and paying for Hamas…….

What are you alleging? That the Iranian government is making the Israeli military kill Palestinian babies?

I don’t understand the need to excuse atrocities and war crimes. We are supposed to be better than Iran and Hamas, not their useful idiots being manipulated into to carrying out what many experts have called and continue to warn is a genocide against innocent civilians.

No, reports by two different organisations; Two reports by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI)

Gazans are perfectly entitled to have large families. I suppose like anyone in this world you have a go think what resources you can offer your children. Average family size is probably around 4 children so this seems to suggest that Gazans are maybe limiting themselves to 2. Death of civilians should make news but it is affecting a point to say another country is stopping another population reproducing.....that is individual choice. I think this is another story that wants to push Gaza up the agenda after the cease fire which is on the verge of stage 2 of the peace process.

Helps with the 'Israel are baby killer's narrative.

The problem with this article is that it is so glaring two things. Yes there will have been Civil an death I. Gaza and yes there will have been an impact on healthcare after a war which Hamas jnstkgated. However the 41% reduction in births is probably as much about women deciding to reduce the number of children they bear as a result of war. 2 child families allow an equilibrium in population so you have population growth in reality if the average number of births per woman is greater than 2.

It seems the Guardian is taking quotes from various organisations and goading people to again use the 'gemocide' word in a 'campaigning' journalism sense to keep Gaza in the news which after the massacre in Iran I would think pro Palestinians desperately want.

How many miscarriages would naturally occurs in a population 2 million not at war in a 2 month period anywhere in the world? If the article is taken at face value the number of miscarriages number in the thousands i.e. one miscarriage per thousand women. Childbirth and pregnancy are dangerous in any country and the use of statistics to try and make a point is nothing new....Maybe the writers were hoping that the today title could be misconstrued as 41% of babies had been killed I Gaza which isn't true.

Surprised the fall in births isn’t higher. Who would choose to have babies in what has been a war until recently? The conditions would have been appalling and Hamas let it go on for 2 years when they could have surrendered as soon as it became obvious their friends in Iran were not going to join them in their attempt to eradicate Jews.

Still it’s nice that the Pro PALs ( including OP with a new username) have found something else to feel outraged about. They showed zero concern for Iranian protesters getting killed by their own government in recent days. So it becomes clear that humanitarian concerns for innocent people are not their primary concern.

Exactly.

It would be natural for women to want fewer children during a war. (It would be bizarre if they didn't). There is a general infrastructure damage sir to the nature of the war and in time maternity services will improve.

There are women giving birth in difficult circumstances all around the globe yet the Gaurdian cherry picks one conflict to get and promote the genocide narrative to a go. shock value and stir up a little more hate for Israelis and Jews.

Could you not just agree that this is awful and the situation of pregnant women in Gaza needs to be improved

Two reports by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI) document how the war has led to high figures for maternal and neonatal mortality and forced births in dangerous conditions and systematically dismantled health services – consequences of “a deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians,”

Thanks for sharing @GiantBranch. It’s beyond me how the usual people can find reasons to not only justify this but attack you personally for posting it.
Those mobile units must be allowed in.

I wish the the mobile units to come in too @Ellen2shoes & hope MSF will change their policy on providing the employee details enquired in order that Israel will allow it.

Welcome you agreeing that the mobile maternity units which have been languishing at the border for months, should be allowed in to Gaza.

The issue of Israel banning 37 aid agencies given the current circumstances of pregnant women and dire general need has been discussed extensively on other threads and is related to many factors not solely staff lists, as you are well aware

The banning of aid agencies is a far more complex issue than your post suggests. It is a situation which has been exacerbated by Israel’s, to date, refusal to meet with the aid agencies to find a solution

https://www.ictu.ie/news/irish-congress-trade-unions-condemns-blocking-irish-funded-maternity-care-gazans

But it's also formula and food that Israel has blocked even though it has been donated by other countries.
https://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-and-israel-aid-jordan-6927034-Jan2026/

This shows how incredibly brutal the weaponisation of beaurocracy can be.

Mobile maternity units not allowed to enter because of restrictions on medical vehicles.

282 aid trucks custom built to IDF specifications at a cost of over $220,000 each now sitting in a holding bay, unused for the last four months.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of antibiotics deliberately stored to past their expiry date.

Thousands of pounds worth of tins of meat stored up about to reach expiry.

Formula sitting around for months. Even crayons withheld because of ‘dual purpose’.

How many lives could these things have saved? Donated by other countries, deliberately wasted by Israel. It is totally depraved.

I’ve read your other posts and the glaring omissions in your contention that it is individual women’s’ choice as to how many pregnancies they have is only true in a peaceful country with access to affordable/low cost/free contraception and terminations.

During the two years of war:

• rape of Israeli hostages and Palestinian women by armed Palestinian militias and IDF soldiers have been disclosed by victime and by credible sources and are the subject of two UN reports on sexual violence and rape being used as a weapon of war (it is a war crime).
• there has been no supply of contraception due to COGAT blocking aid and the fact aid agencies don’t consider it to be as important as medical aid for life threatening trauma or disease
• there has been no clinic or hospital from which to obtain a termination due to the widespread attacks on and almost total destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza.

The article does not mention individual choice for family size because it doesn’t hold true for women trapped on a battlefield. This is a systemic problem with war and is true for all women and girls trapped on all battlefields whether civilian or armed forces.

This article is well worth reading re the weaponisation of bureaucracy, shocking

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41777075.html

”Another aid worker on the ground highlighted how difficult it is to get items such as powdered milk for baby formula in.
He describes how Israeli customs refuse its entry due to an existing quota restricting the importation of powdered milk, questioning why such a limit is placed on humanitarian responses in Gaza. “It’s death by bureaucracy.”

There is NO logical reason to stop baby formula and maternity equipment from crossing any border anywhere. Israel is just showing how awful they are doing these things. Pretending there’s any reason antibiotics that are desperately needed should be left to spoil is just ridiculous. Anybody who isn’t revolted by this behaviour has something seriously wrong with them.

Formula, high energy food, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, antibiotics and even children’s games. If anything can save a life or alleviate suffering, Israel withholds or bans it. It feels like pure spite.

‘It’s hard to understand what the reason for removing such items could be, beyond just out and out cruelty from an Israeli government that seeks to collectively punish Palestinians for actions carried out by Hamas on October 7.’

It is sickening that the UK government is well aware of this and says nothing, does nothing. Business as usual. Disgraceful.

Is there any evidence for this as if it was that difficult to get baby formula into Gaza, you’d expect to see a higher amount of infant deaths from starvation than the 100 children reported by Hamas to have died from malnutrition related deaths since Oct 2023, many with pre existing conditions? There were approximately 60,000 births in Gaza from Oct 2023 and March 2025. If the mothers were suffering from the effects of starvation as also reported, which affects breastmilk production, those babies/toddlers would be reliant on formula milk. Thankfully what that aid worker said doesn’t sound true does it?

This is not a new phenomenon unfortunately for years so many items have been restricted by Israel under the guise of security purposes (like pasta).

Israel should not have the power to stop items donated for and intended for Palestinian people to further their own policies.

Yes there is.
No it doesn’t sound true. It’s very difficult to believe. No one wants this to be true so acknowledging that it’s actually happening is a start.