‘Genocidal Acts’: UN Condemns Israel’s Strikes on Reproductive Centers in Gaza

UN Condemns Israeli Attacks on Gaza Maternity Facilities as Potential "Genocidal Acts"

The United Nations has issued a scathing rebuke of Israel's recent military strikes targeting reproductive healthcare centers across Gaza, with officials warning these attacks may constitute "genocidal acts" under international law. The bombardment of maternity hospitals and neonatal units has left expectant mothers without critical medical care, plunging Gaza's already crippled healthcare system into deeper crisis.  

At Al-Helou Maternity Hospital in northern Gaza, doctors described delivering babies by flashlight after an airstrike reduced the facility to rubble. Dr. Yasmin Al-Khaldi, an obstetrician who survived the attack, recalled the horror of performing emergency cesareans in dust-choked corridors as ammunition fire echoed outside. "We lost three mothers that night—not to complications, but to Israel's bombs and blockade," she said, her voice trembling. "When you destroy the places where life begins, what else can we call it but genocide?"  

Satellite analysis by UN investigators reveals at least six specialized reproductive health clinics have been hit since mid-October, including Gaza's sole fertility treatment center where embryos were stored. The Israeli military maintains these facilities housed Hamas operations, though no evidence has been presented to support these claims. "Our incubators held premature babies, not weapons," said nurse Ibrahim Saeed, sifting through the wreckage of what was once a neonatal intensive care unit.  

The humanitarian consequences are catastrophic. The World Health Organization reports over 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza now lack access to basic prenatal care, with at least 180 delivering daily in shelters, tents, or bombed-out buildings. Twenty-nine-year-old Marwa Abu Sabha, eight months pregnant, described walking through active combat zones to reach a makeshift maternity clinic after her local healthcare center was destroyed. "I passed bodies in the street while having contractions," she said, wincing as a midwife checked her blood pressure. "My fear isn't just for my baby's birth—it's whether we'll survive the next air raid."  

International legal experts note the systematic targeting of reproductive infrastructure could meet the UN's definition of genocidal intent, which includes "deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a group's physical destruction." Protests have erupted globally, with demonstrators in London, Cape Town, and Kuala Lumpur displaying baby clothes stained with red paint to symbolize Gaza's lost mothers and infants.  

As the death toll among women and children surpasses 8,000, Gaza's remaining healthcare workers continue operating in unimaginable conditions. At a converted school basement serving as an emergency maternity ward, Dr. Al-Khaldi sutured a new mother's tears without anesthetic. "Every birth certificate we write now includes the coordinates where the baby was delivered—in a warzone," she said, rocking a hours-old infant. "This is how Israel wants the world to remember Palestinian children: born between rubble and graves."