UN: Gaza Maternal and Newborn Care on Brink of Collapse

Medical equipment destroyed in an attack on a hospital in Gaza.

Gaza’s health system for mothers and newborns has been “decimated,” the UN said on Thursday, with Israeli attacks destroying nearly all hospitals, cutting off medical supplies, and driving sharp rises in maternal deaths, miscarriages, and newborn fatalities amid mass displacement and hunger.

According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, when Palestinian armed groups attacked communities in southern Israel, prompting Israel’s full-scale military assault on the enclave.

OHCHR said 94 per cent of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, leaving pregnant women and newborns without essential care.

“The Israeli blockade has also prevented the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including medical supplies and nutrients required to sustain pregnancies and ensure safe childbirth,” the Office said.

By late 2024, women in Gaza were three times more likely to die in childbirth and three times more likely to miscarry compared with pre-war levels, while newborn deaths also surged, OHCHR reported.

Hospitals destroyed, medical staff killed

Israeli strikes hit maternity wards and neonatal intensive care units, while the December 2023 shelling of Gaza’s largest fertility clinic caused the loss of more than 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm and egg specimens.

Medical personnel have also been targeted, OHCHR said, citing Palestinian Ministry of Health figures that reported 1,722 healthcare workers killed as of September 2025.

Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, a gynecologist who volunteered in Gaza, told OHCHR: “As we did our rounds, bombs were going off in the background… Sometimes quadcopters would come in and try to shoot nurses or literally chase them through the hospital corridors.”

She said pregnant women often arrived with gunshot wounds, including abdominal injuries.

“Many women were simply too injured to survive. If their injuries did not claim their lives, then sepsis often did, as there were not enough medical supplies or antibiotics.”

Hunger crisis worsening outcomes

The blockade has created severe shortages of food and baby formula. As of October 2025, 463 Palestinians had died from malnutrition, including 157 children, according to the Ministry of Health.

Jonathan Crix of UNICEF, speaking from Gaza, described children and families enduring winter storms in makeshift tents: “Everything was completely damp… the mattresses were wet; the children’s clothes were wet. It’s extremely difficult to live in those conditions.”

He warned of rising acute watery diarrhoea and the risk of further disease outbreaks.

“With very poor hygiene conditions and limited sanitation, we are extremely concerned about the spread of waterborne diseases.”

West Bank barriers expand

OHCHR also expressed alarm over Israel’s construction of a new barrier and road in the Jordan Valley.

Ajith Sunghay, Head of Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the project would “separate Palestinian communities from each other and Palestinian farmers in Tubas from land they own on the other side of the planned barrier.”

He warned that it represents “another step towards the progressive fragmentation of the West Bank, which will eventually lead to the consolidation of annexation,” stressing that Palestinian refugee rights “cannot be stripped or altered by unilateral coercive measures.”