Hundreds of Palestinian couples experiencing infertility in Gaza City lost hope when Israel attacked the Al Basma IVF Center in December.
The largest fertility clinic in Gaza was hit by an Israeli bomb in December, and the explosion destroyed five liquid nitrogen tanks that were kept in an embryology unit corner.
The temperature within the tanks increased as the extremely cold liquid evaporated, killing almost 4,000 embryos as well as 1,000 more sperm and unfertilized egg specimens kept at the Al Basma IVF center in Gaza City.
That one Israeli strike had a significant effect, illuminating the hidden cost of Israel’s six-and-a-half-month war on the 2.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza.
For hundreds of infertile Palestinian couples, the embryos in those tanks represented their only chance at a happy ending.
The clinic was founded in 1997 by Cambridge-trained obstetrician and gynecologist Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, 73. “We know deeply what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for the parents, either for the future or for the past,” she added.
According to him, there won’t be another opportunity for at least half of the couples to become pregnant—those who are unable to generate enough sperm or eggs to create healthy embryos.
“My heart is divided into a million pieces,” he stated.
For Seba Jaafarawi, undergoing reproductive treatment for three years was a psychological roller coaster.
Her ovaries had to be removed in a painful procedure, the hormone shots had unpleasant side effects, and the disappointment of not being able to conceive after two failed attempts at pregnancy felt unfathomable.
When 32-year-old Jaafarawi and her husband were unable to conceive naturally, they turned to the commonly accessible in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, large families are typical in the enclave, where almost half of the population is under the age of 18, and the fertility rate is high at 3.38 births per woman. 1.63 births per woman are the fertility rate in Britain.
Couples who are infertile pursue IVF despite Gaza’s poverty, with some having to sell jewelry and TVs to cover the costs, according to Al Ghalayini.
IVF, in which sperm fertilizes eggs obtained from a woman’s ovaries in a laboratory, was carried out at least nine facilities in Gaza. When the moment is right for transferring the fertilized eggs, or embryos, into a woman’s uterus, they are frequently frozen. In Gaza, the majority of frozen embryos were kept at the Al Basma center.
September was Jaafarawi’s first successful IVF pregnancy.
“I did not even have time to celebrate the news,” she stated.
“How would I carry my pregnancy to term? As Israel started bombarding Gaza during the Hamas onslaught in October of last year, she exclaimed, “What would happen to me and what would happen to the ones inside my womb?”
Five more of Jaafarawi’s embryos were kept in storage after Ghalayini closed his practice and her ultrasound never materialized.
Al Basma’s head embryologist, Mohammed Ajjour, became concerned about the liquid nitrogen levels in the five specimen tanks as the Israeli attacks grew more intense. Every month or so, top-ups were required to maintain each tank’s temperature below -180C because they run without electricity.
Ajjour was able to get one delivery of liquid nitrogen after the conflict started, but most sources shuttered and Israel cut off fuel and electricity to Gaza.
Israeli tanks entered Gaza at the end of October, and occupying troops surrounded the IVF center’s streets. Ajjour could no longer safely inspect the tanks.
Jaafarawi knew she needed to take it easy to protect her unsteady pregnancy, but dangers were all around her: the elevator had broken and she had to walk six stories to reach her room; a bomb had destroyed the building next door and shattered the windows in her apartment; food and water were running low.
She fretted rather than rested.
“I got very scared and there were signs that I would lose (the pregnancy),” she stated.
After Jaafarawi went south to Khan Younis with her husband, she started to bleed a little bit. Her panic did not go away, but the bleeding did.
“Five thousand lives in one shell”
On November 12, they entered Egypt, and in Cairo, her first ultrasound revealed she was carrying twins, both of whom were healthy.
However, a few days later, she started to have excruciating cramps, bleed profusely, and her stomach suddenly shifted. Even when she arrived at the hospital, the miscarriage had already started.
“The sounds of me screaming and crying at the hospital are still (echoing) in my ears,” she stated.
The anguish of loss has persisted.
“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,” she stated.
Jaafarawi desired to take her frozen embryos back to the combat zone and try IVF once more.
However, it came too late.
According to Ghalayini, an Israeli shell hit the center’s corner, destroying the embryology lab on the bottom floor. He’s not sure if the attack was directed towards the lab in particular.
“All these lives were killed or taken away: 5,000 lives in one shell,” he stated.
A Reuters-commissioned journalist who visited the scene in April said that the embryology lab was still littered with shattered masonry, blown-up lab supplies, and the liquid nitrogen tanks among the debris.
The tanks’ lids were ajar, revealing a basket at the base of one that held the shattered minuscule embryos in small, color-coded straws.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
