The 260 cases registered in the first nine months of 2026 exceed the 184 cases documented throughout the entire prewar year of 2022. This upward trend follows a dramatic spike in 2025, which saw 322 recorded birth defects, representing a 75 percent increase over 2022. Health experts warn that data alone cannot yet determine precise causes or overall rates of congenital anomalies across the territory. These figures reflect warnings issued in a January 2025 Human Rights Watch report regarding acute shortages of medicine, food, and clean water.
Key points
Local health professionals have called for an independent international scientific invest…: Local health professionals have called for an independent international scientific investigation to examine newborn health trends.
The documented figures currently fail to establish the broader territorial rate or defini…: The documented figures currently fail to establish the broader territorial rate or definitive causes of congenital anomalies.
Severe disruptions to prenatal care, maternal malnutrition, and toxic environmental expos…: Severe disruptions to prenatal care, maternal malnutrition, and toxic environmental exposures are considered potential contributing factors.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
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.
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