Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Ramallah, May 5 – The number of cases of fetal malformations and complicated births has increased significantly in the Gaza Strip due to the use of prohibited weapons by the Israeli army, the Palestinian news agency Shehab reported today.
In June, July, and August 2024 alone, 172 babies were born there with deformities and congenital disorders, the source noted, although it clarified that it is impossible to know the exact number due to the destruction caused to the health system.
“The tragedy is cumulative in its data and consequences: not even the fetuses in their mothers' wombs were saved from extermination,” the media outlet denounced.
It highlighted that dozens of fetuses were born or aborted with deformed bodies.
“In Gaza, deformity is not a rare medical coincidence, but a disturbing indicator of a silent humanitarian catastrophe that spreads through future generations,” it warned.
The source cited medical reports and testimonies indicating a significant increase in such cases, motivated by the use of internationally prohibited weapons.
While hospitals in the besieged Strip lack the medical equipment necessary for early diagnosis and treatment, residents are forced to fend for themselves, it said.
Shehab criticized the "shameful international silence and disregard for basic human rights."
As an example, it referred to the cases of Malak Ahmed Al-Qanou, a girl who was born without a brain at the northern Al-Awda hospital, and Muhammad Abu Awad, who has congenital deformities in the heart, feet and brain.
It also documented the case of Noura Abu Marouf, a baby who was stillborn due to congenital brain defects and a hole in her heart.
Munir al-Barash, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, emphasized that Palestinian doctors attribute the problem to Israel's use of experimental weapons with devastating radiological and chemical effects.
Al-Barash pointed out the similarity between what is happening in Gaza today and what happened in Iraq after the US invasion, when an unprecedented increase in birth defects due to pollution and radiation was recorded.
For this reason, he called for an urgent international investigation into the nature of the weapons used by the Israeli Army.
Dr. Hatem Zaheer, head of the nursing department at the Nasser Medical Complex, spoke in similar terms.
Zaheer stated that the increase in the number of newborns suffering from congenital malformations, particularly cardiac, reproductive, and lower limb defects, is motivated by "the war of extermination in which millions of explosive materials were dropped on the Gaza Strip." (Text and photo: PL)
