Gaza records more birth defects in nine months than in all of 2022, Wafa reports

The number of birth defects recorded among newborns in Gaza during the first nine months of 2026 has exceeded the total reported for the whole of 2022, the year before Israel’s war on the territory began, the Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported. A medical source in Gaza told Wafa that 260 cases were recorded between January and September, compared with 184 cases in all of 2022. The source said 322 cases were recorded in 2025, a 75 percent increase on the 2022 figure. Possible contributing factors include maternal malnutrition, exposure to environmental pollutants and disruptions to prenatal care during the war, the source said, calling for an independent international scientific investigation. The source cautioned that the figures alone do not establish the rate of congenital anomalies among newborns or determine their causes. A January 2025 report by Human Rights Watch said pregnant women in Gaza faced serious health risks because of the war, the blockade, damage to health facilities and shortages of food, water and medicine. An ambulance drives past a bloodstain after an Israeli strike that killed three people in Gaza City’s al-Remal neighbourhood, 1 November 2026 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)