Majority of frozen embryos in Gaza destroyed in shell attack

An Israeli strike on the largest fertility clinic in Gaza has destroyed thousands of embryos.

Embryos and gametes were damaged when an Israeli shell hit the centre's embryology unit in December 2023, causing the lids to be blown off the five storage tanks there, the liquid nitrogen to evaporate, and samples to thaw. The 4000 embryos, 1000 sperm and unfertilised egg samples destroyed as a result of the strike on A1 Basma IVF Centre, Gaza City, represent the majority of IVF embryos stored in Gaza as other fertility clinics based there used this centre for storage.

'At least half of the couples – those who can no longer produce sperm or eggs to make viable embryos – will not have another chance to get pregnant' Dr Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, the clinic's founder told Reuters. 'My heart is divided into a million pieces.'

The shell strike occurred as part of Israel's ongoing military activity in Gaza after the attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023. World Health Organisation called for a halt to attacks on health care in Gaza in November 2023, and claimed that Israeli attacks on Gazan medical facilities were a violation of international law. Reuters reported it had approached the Israeli military's press desk regarding the damage to the fertility clinic, who responded they were looking into reports.

The strike on the A1 Basma Centre in December, comes amid wider warnings that Israeli operations in Gaza have led to the collapse of its health system, which was already unstable, a paper published in The Lancet reported last year.

Embryo storage tanks require monthly liquid nitrogen top-ups to keep the temperature below -180C, but Al Basma's chief embryologist Mohammed Ajjour was only able to procure one delivery of liquid nitrogen after the war began. Towards the end of October 2023 he also became unable to check liquid nitrogen levels in the tanks when the streets around the IVF centre became too dangerous for him to visit, he told Reuters.

Seba Jaafarawi who conceived twins following IVF treatment in Gaza in September 2023 told the Telegraph newspaper she had miscarried after travelling to Egypt to escape the violence, but was unable to travel back to Gaza to retrieve her remaining embryos.

'The sounds of me screaming and crying at the hospital are still in my ears, Jaafarawi said. '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.'