Watan-Reuters reported on Wednesday that an Israeli shell hit the largest fertility center in the besieged Gaza Strip last December, causing the covers of five tanks containing liquid nitrogen, located in a corner of the embryo unit, to be removed.
The agency’s report revealed that when the extremely cold liquid evaporated, the temperature inside the tanks rose, resulting in the loss of over four thousand embryos of in vitro fertilization, in addition to a thousand other samples of unfertilized sperm and eggs stored in the “Basma Fertility and IVF Center.”
This serves as an example of the invisible crimes of the relentless Israeli aggression on Gaza for over six months, according to Reuters.
The last hope for hundreds of couples has been destroyed
Those embryos in those tanks were the last hope for hundreds of Palestinian couples facing fertility problems.
Dr. Bahaa al-Ghalayini (73 years old), a consultant in obstetrics and gynecology who received training at “Cambridge” and founded the Basma Center in 1997, said in an interview with the agency: “We know with all our senses what those five thousand lives meant, or the life that was possible, for the fathers and mothers… in the future and in the past.”
Dr. Ghalayini added that at least half of the couples will not have another chance to conceive as they no longer have the ability to produce viable sperm or eggs.
He said, describing his feelings about what happened, “My heart is shattered into a million pieces.”
As for Saba Jaafari, undergoing fertility treatment for three years was a tough psychological journey. The process of extracting eggs from her ovaries was painful, and hormone injections had strong side effects, as the sorrow of two failed attempts at pregnancy was evident.
Saba (32 years old) and her husband were unable to conceive naturally, which led them to resort to artificial insemination widely available in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Ghalayini said that despite poverty in the region, couples facing fertility problems resort to artificial insemination, and for this dream, they sell household appliances such as televisions or jewelry to pay for that medical service.
It is worth mentioning that on the 194th day of the war, the occupation army continues its massacres in Gaza, resulting in more martyrs and casualties, most of whom are women and children.
Simultaneously with this relentless aggression, which has surpassed its sixth month, the brave Palestinian resistance confronts the incursions of the occupation and fiercely clashes with it in the battlefronts north of Gaza.