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‘5,000 lives in one shell’: Gaza fertility clinic hit by Israeli strike
When an Israeli shell struck Gaza’s largest fertility clinic in December it destroyed more than 4,000 embryos plus 1,000 sperm specimens and unfertilised eggs, according to a report by Reuters news agency.
The Israeli strike blasted the lids off five liquid nitrogen tanks stored in a corner of the embryology unit. As the ultra-cold liquid evaporated, the temperature inside the tanks rose, destroying the reproductive specimens at Gaza City’s al-Basma invitro fertilisation centre.
“We know deeply what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for the parents, either for the future or for the past,” said Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, a Cambridge-trained obstetrician and gynaecologist who first opened the clinic in 1997.
At least half of the couples affected will not have another chance to get pregnant, he added. “All these lives were killed or taken away: 5,000 lives in one shell.”
Children among the dead in Israeli attacks on refugee camps
‘No tangible change’ in aid flow to Gaza
The number of aid trucks getting into Gaza is still very limited with hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians.
Aid groups say there’s been no tangible change in terms of aid flow, and it doesn’t meet the immense needs of the population. The amount coming in needs to reach at least 500 trucks a day with signs of famine looming.
Yesterday, for example, only 178 trucks were allowed into Gaza through both the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) and Rafah crossings – even as the Israeli military has been saying it’s increasing the amount of aid into the besieged territory.
People we’ve been talking to in northern Gaza say they are only receiving enough aid to provide them with one meal per day.
Gaza Health Ministry appeals for sick, wounded patients to travel abroad
In a statement on Telegram, the ministry called for Palestinians in Gaza who need treatment for cancer and other severe illnesses or injuries to be granted permission to travel abroad so their lives can be saved.
After more than six months of war, there are at least 76,465 wounded people in Gaza with few functional health facilities that also lack the resources to effectively treat them or those severely ill.
“We lose some of them every day,” said the ministry.
Israel’s war on Gaza death toll hits 33,899
The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s six-month war on the Gaza Strip has reached 33,899, the Health Ministry says. Fifty-six Palestinians have been killed and 89 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. At least 76,664 people have now been wounded in relentless attacks.
Among the dead are more than 14,520 children and 10,000 women. The death toll is likely far higher with thousands of bodies buried in the rubble of buildings collapsed by Israeli strikes.
An Israeli bombardment in the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City on Tuesday
