When an Israeli shell hit the largest infertility clinic in the Gaza Strip in December, the explosion blew off the lids of five tanks of liquid nitrogen stored in a corner of the embryology department, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
After the ultra-cold liquid evaporated, the temperature in the tanks rose and more than 4,000 frozen embryos, as well as more than 1,000 samples of semen and unfertilized eggs stored in the in vitro fertilization center of the “Al Basma“ clinic, were destroyed in Gaza City.
The impact of this single explosion extends far beyond the pale - an example of the invisible damage that six months of Israeli attacks have inflicted on the coastal territory's 2.3 million people, Reuters notes. The embryos in the tanks were the last hope for hundreds of Palestinian couples to have children, the agency added.
"We know very well what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for their parents, as well as for the future or the past," said Bahaeldin Galaini, 73, a Cambridge, Britain-educated obstetrician-gynecologist who founded the clinic in 1997.
At least half of the couples, in which the partners can no longer produce sperm or eggs to create viable embryos, no longer have a chance of having a child, he said.
In response to a Reuters inquiry about the incident, the Israeli army's information office said it was investigating the reports. Tel Aviv denies deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and has accused Hamas militants of using medical facilities as bases, a charge Hamas denies.