Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Al Mayadeen correspondent: The US vetoed a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, arguing it does not condemn Hamas nor grant "Israel" the right to “self-defense.”
Israeli occupation forces issue a new bombing threat against civilian buildings in the Southern Lebanese towns of Borj Qalaouiye and Chehabiyeh.
Sources to Al Mayadeen: Extending the snapback mechanism deadline will test how independent Europeans truly are from the US.
Sources to Al Mayadeen: Activating the snapback mechanism will nullify the Cairo Agreement, shut the door on cooperation between the IAEA and Tehran, and bar inspections.
Sources to Al Mayadeen: The diplomatic window remains open, but signs of activating the snapback sanctions mechanism on Iran are increasing.
Sources to Al Mayadeen: Although the Cairo Agreement meets an important part of European demands, they have begun speaking of new conditions in recent communications.
Sources to Al Mayadeen: European countries show no independence in their stance toward Iran during the talks.
Israeli occupation forces issued bombing threats to bomb civilian buildings in Southern Lebanon.
Israeli media: Person behind shooting operation at Allenby Crossing is a Jordanian Army soldier.
Israeli media citing Emergency Services: Both wounded in Allenby shooting operation now dead.

'Israel' after every form of life in Gaza, destroys 4,000 IVF embryos

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 17 Apr 2024 14:46
  • 5 Shares
4 Min Read

Nine clinics were available in Gaza for the treatment whereby the fertilized eggs were frozen until the time was ready for transfer to a woman's uterus.

  • x
  • Medics prepare premature babies for transport to Egypt after they were evacuated from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to a hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP)
    Medics prepare premature babies for transport to Egypt after they were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to a hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP)

After “Israel” struck Gaza’s largest fertility and IVF clinic, Al Basma Center, five liquid nitrogen tanks in the embryology unit had their lids blasted off, destroying more than 4000 embryos and 1000 specimens of sperm and unfertilized eggs, Reuters reported. 

Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, the Cambridge-trained obstetrician and gynecologist who established the clinic in 1997, expressed, “We know deeply what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for the parents, either for the future or for the past."

He noted that at least half of those couples who can no longer produce sperm or eggs will not have another opportunity to have a baby.

"My heart is divided into a million pieces."

According to Ghalayini, those who underwent IVF were selling TVs and their jewelry in order to pay the fees.

It is worth noting, as per the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, that almost half the population in the Strip is under 18 and the fertility rate is high at 3.38 births per woman. 

Every ten minutes, a pregnant woman in the #Gaza Strip gives birth under brutal circumstances, as thousands of other pregnant women in shelter centers and tents face the risk of contracting diseases, abortion, and even direct murder by Israeli forces.#PalestineGenocide pic.twitter.com/VO08sNUJ3S

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) February 14, 2024

Nine clinics were available in Gaza for the treatment whereby the fertilized eggs were frozen until the time was ready for transfer to a woman's uterus, with most embryos stored at the Al Basma center.

'Only those who experience it know what it's really like'

One example is Seba Jaafarawi, who spent three years undergoing treatment and painful injections after two failed attempted pregnancies and thus resorted to in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Read next: 1 baby every 10 minutes born into war-torn 'hell' of Gaza

Related News

Yemeni drone strikes Eilat, followed by missile at Tel Aviv

Russia Deputy FM meets Lebanese ex PM, discuss regional developments

She became pregnant in September following her first successful IVF attempt. Shortly after, the war began. 

"I did not even have time to celebrate the news," she expressed, asking, “How would I complete my pregnancy? What would happen to me and what would happen to the ones inside my womb?"

She was never able to undergo an ultrasound, and the clinic was closed where five of her embryos were stored.

Considering that liquid nitrogen levels have to be sufficient for embryo survival, Mohammed Ajjour, Al Basma's chief embryologist, began to worry as he needed to keep the temperature below -180C in each tank, and when he managed to receive one delivery of liquid nitrogen, “Israel” cut electricity and fuel to Gaza, and its military tanks roamed around the center - making it dangerous for anyone to go in.

Jaafarawi faced her own struggles as she had to climb six flights of stairs to her apartment because the elevator stopped working; food and water became a scarcity and a bomb on the building next door took out her windows.

“I got very scared and there were signs that I would lose (the pregnancy)," she stated, adding that after she and her husband crossed into Egypt on November 12, her first ultrasound showed she was having twins. However, a few days later, bleeding began and there was a sudden shift in her belly. The miscarriage was happening. 

“The sounds of me screaming and crying at the hospital are still (echoing) in my ears… Whatever you imagine or I tell you about how hard the IVF journey is, only those who have gone through it know what it's really like," she said. 

She wanted to return for her frozen embryos to try again, but it was too late. 

Ghalayini asserted that one shelling from “Israel” took out the enter ground floor, which had the embryology lab. 

“All these lives were killed or taken away: 5,000 lives in one shell," he said.

Earlier this month, as per a Reuters-commissioned journalist who visited the lab, the embryology lab was shown with blown-up lab supplies and liquid nitrogen tanks among the rubble. 

Read more: Famine in Gaza causing women to give birth to stillborn babies

The lids were open and at the bottom of one of the tanks was a basket of color-coded straws containing the ruined microscopic embryos.

  • Palestine
  • Israel
  • IVF
  • fertility
  • Gaza
  • Infanticide
War on Gaza

War on Gaza

Most Read

Why is Choose Love using a firm with British and US intelligence connections to run a pro-Palestine musical event? (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Together for Palestine: Troubling questions about the organisers of this huge event

  • Opinion
  • 17 Sep 2025
Uprising against Volker Turk at the Human Rights Council over Gaza.

Uprising against Volker Turk at the Human Rights Council over Gaza

  • Politics
  • 12 Sep 2025
A screengrab from the ad played on Fox News. (X Screengrab)

Fox airs ad warning Trump not to let Netanyahu 'play' him on Gaza

  • US & Canada
  • 11 Sep 2025
Lapid: Egypt’s Arab Force plan a 'severe blow' to normalization

Lapid: Egypt’s Arab Force plan a 'severe blow' to normalization

  • Palestine
  • 14 Sep 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
A Hezbollah supporter who lost his sight in a pager attack carried out by "Israel" on Sept. 17, 2024, covers his eyes with a red headband inscribed with the name "Hussein" during Ashoura, July 6, 2025 (AP)
Politics

'We Have Recovered': Lebanon marks 1st anniversary of Pager Attack

The Arab neighborhood of El Za'im, on the outskirts of east Occupied Al-Quds in the West Bank, near where Israeli government says housing units will be built as part of the E1 settlement project, Thursday, August 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestine

'Israel’s' deliberate policies drive West Bank economy toward collapse

Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Politics

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder resigns over parent company curbing activism

Trump’s approval rating falls to new low in second term: Poll
US & Canada

Trump’s approval rating falls to new low in second term: Poll

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS