Israel’s ‘Reproductive Genocide’ of Palestinians, 188-page report reveals horrific facts

Israel has been carrying out ‘reproductive genocide’ against the Palestinian people for decades. It has destroyed medical infrastructure, killed women and children, and degraded the environment to a level that has resulted in infertility. These facts have been revealed in a new report.

The report by the ‘Palestinian Feminist Collective’ said that this practice accelerated when the Israeli massacre in Gaza began after the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Its main aim is to make normal life impossible for Palestinians.

Last week, the UN’s top investigative body on Palestine and Israel concluded that Israeli forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children as a major part of the attack on Gaza.

The UN report examined the full picture of the harm done to children. These include sniper and drone strikes, torture in detention, reproductive violence, and the destruction of schools and hospitals.

According to the UN, Israel has killed more than 21,000 Palestinian children since October 2023. It is estimated that another 5,160 children are buried under rubble. At least 15,000 children have lost their mothers as of October 2024.

In one incident documented by the UN, four newborns died after Israeli forces cut off electricity at the Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital. Their decomposed bodies were later found connected to a malfunctioning life support machine.

At the beginning of the genocide, the UN estimated that there were 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza and 5,500 babies were being born each month. Many needed emergency medical care, which was impossible due to the Israeli military.

The abortion rate increased by more than 300 percent during that time. Widespread malnutrition, anemia, and a lack of essential prenatal medications increase the risk of premature birth, low birth weight, and severe bleeding during childbirth.

‘A Predatory State’

The 188-page report, prepared with the support of Progressive International, is titled ‘A Predatory State: Israel’s Systemic Sexualized and Gendered Violence Against Palestinians’. It notes that Israel’s blockade of Gaza’s access to clean water, sanitary pads, and essential goods has forced many Palestinian women “to resort to birth control pills or homemade pads to stop their periods.”

The report is based on research conducted between December 2025 and April 2026. It includes testimonies from survivors and eyewitnesses, secret documents released by Israel, oral histories of Palestinians, academic research, documentary evidence, media reports, documents from human rights organizations, and UN reports and statements.

Gaza’s bombed-out hospitals lack fuel, electricity, anesthesia, or sterile equipment. As a result, Palestinian women are forced to give birth in crowded shelters, in homes, or on the streets surrounded by rubble.

International doctors working in Gaza have described the horrific experience of performing surgeries, including caesarean sections, without anesthesia. New mothers are deprived of basic necessities such as diapers, food, water, and infant formula, which are common in other parts of the world.

The report claims that Israel’s assault on Gaza has been carried out in part through the “systematic destruction of reproductive health care facilities and other daily infrastructure, making life not only precarious but impossible for Palestinians.”

Israel has destroyed maternity wards and IVF clinics in Gaza. The Palestinian Feminist Collective says the military’s use of white phosphorus and other toxic weapons “will have long-term and hereditary effects on fertility.”

Thousands of Palestinian mothers are left as widows or wives of prisoners of war, the sole breadwinners and protectors of their families. Meanwhile, thousands more women have been separated from their families due to systematic evictions and imprisonment.

The report states, “Despite widespread hunger, displacement and disease, Palestinian mothers in Gaza are being forced to bear new lives and care for their children.”

Mothers’ Killing

The Palestinian Feminist Collective highlighted the cases of Rania Abu Anza and Jomana Arafa, two women from Gaza.

After 10 years of IVF treatment, Abu Anza finally gave birth to twins, Naeem and Wissam. But in March 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed her husband and the two children.

Two days after Jomana Arafa gave birth to her twins, her two children and her mother were killed while sheltering in a “humanitarian safe zone” declared by the Israeli military. Her husband survived by going to register the newborns.

The report describes these incidents as just the “tip of the iceberg.”

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reported that Israeli forces have carried out systematic attacks on reproductive health care facilities. Maternity wards, antenatal clinics, fertility clinics and neonatal