In response to the UN human rights workplace (OHCHR), greater than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, when Palestinian armed teams attacked communities in southern Israel, triggering Israel’s full-scale army assault on the enclave.
OHCHR stated 94 per cent of Gaza’s hospitals have been broken or destroyed, leaving pregnant ladies and newborns with out important care.
“The Israeli blockade has additionally prevented the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, together with medical provides and vitamins required to maintain pregnancies and guarantee protected childbirth,” the Workplace stated.
By late 2024, ladies in Gaza have been thrice extra prone to die in childbirth and thrice extra prone to miscarry in contrast with pre-war rangeswhereas new child deaths additionally elevated, OHCHR reported.
Hospitals destroyed, medical employees killed
Israeli strikes hit maternity wards and neonatal intensive care models, whereas the December 2023 shelling of Gaza’s largest fertility clinic induced the lack of over 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm and egg specimens.
Medical personnel have additionally been focused, OHCHR stated, citing Palestinian Ministry of Well being figures reporting 1,722 healthcare employees killed as of September 2025.
Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, a gynecologist who volunteered in Gaza, instructed OHCHR: “As we did our rounds, bombs have been going off within the background…Generally quadcopters would are available in and attempt to shoot nurses or actually chase them by the hospital corridors.”
She stated pregnant ladies arrived with gunshot wounds, together with to the stomach.
“Many ladies have been just too injured to outlive. If their accidents didn’t declare their lives, then sepsis typically did, as there weren’t sufficient medical provides or antibiotics.”
Starvation issue
The blockade has pushed extreme shortages of meals and child formulation. As of October 2025, 463 Palestinians had died from malnutrition, together with 157 youngstersthe Ministry of Well being reported.
Jonathan Crix of UN Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF), talking from Gaza, instructed UN Information that youngsters and households enduring winter storms in makeshift tents:
“Every thing was fully damp…the mattresses have been moist; the kids’s garments have been moist. It’s extraordinarily troublesome to stay in these situations.”
He warned of a surge in acute watery diarrhoea and fears of additional illness outbreaks.
“With the very poor hygiene situations and really restricted sanitation system accessible, we’re extraordinarily involved to see the spreading of waterborne ailments.”
West Financial institution obstacles develop
OHCHR additionally voiced alarm over Israel’s development of a brand new barrier and highway within the Jordan Valley.
Ajith Sunghay, the Head of Workplace within the Occupied Palestinian Territory, stated this may “separate Palestinian communities from one another and the Palestinian farmers in Tubas from land they personal on the opposite aspect of the deliberate barrier.”
He additionally warned that it might be “one other step in the direction of the progressive fragmentation of the West Financial institution, which can ultimately result in the consolidation of annexation,” stressing that that rights of Palestinian refugee standing “can’t be stripped or altered by unilateral coercive measures.”
