When an Israeli shell struck Gaza's largest fertility clinic in December, the explosion blasted the lids off five liquid nitrogen tanks stored in a corner of the embryology unit.
As the ultra-cold liquid evaporated, the temperature inside the tanks rose, destroying more than 4,000 embryos plus 1,000 more specimens of sperm and unfertilized eggs stored at Gaza City's Al Basma IVF centre.
The embryos in those tanks were the last hope for hundreds of Palestinian couples facing infertility.
"We know deeply what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for the parents, either for the future or for the past," said Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, 73, the Cambridge-trained obstetrician and gynaecologist who established the clinic in 1997.
At least half of the couples — those who can no longer produce sperm or eggs to make viable embryos — will not have another chance to get pregnant, he said.
Three years of fertility treatment was a psychological roller coaster for Seba Jaafarawi. The retrieval of eggs from her ovaries was painful, the hormone injections had strong side-effects and the sadness when two attempted pregnancies failed seemed unbearable.
Jaafarawi, 32, and her husband could not get pregnant naturally and turned to in vitro fertilization (IVF), which is widely available in Gaza.
Jaafarawi wanted to return to the war zone, retrieve her frozen embryos and attempt IVF again.
But it was soon too late.
Ghalayini said a single Israeli shell struck the corner of the centre, blowing up the ground floor embryology lab. He does not know if the attack specifically targeted the lab or not.
"All these lives were killed or taken away: 5,000 lives in one shell," he said.
In April, the embryology lab was still strewn with broken masonry, blown-up lab supplies and, amid the rubble, the liquid nitrogen tanks, according to a Reuters-commissioned journalist who visited the site.
The lids were open and, still visible at the bottom of one of the tanks, a basket was filled with tiny colour-coded straws containing the ruined microscopic embryos.
@9LMND7T4wks4W
One, **** you. "Let's give these guys three extremists and obviously bad options to prompt a response."
Secondly, Embryos are still the eggs of which new life can be fertilized. That loss is still a tragedy, and should be seen as such.
@BlueStateLolliesPatriot4wks4W
People living in Gaza can afford $100,000 fertility treatments??
@L3ftyTermiteRepublican4wks4W
only hamas and the people dumb enough to support it believed the lie about gaza being a prison. It was a goddamn beach resort where no one really had to work because everything was provided by Israel for mostly free.
@PaellaTaylorDemocrat4wks4W
A prison camp had frozen embryos?
5000 lives with one shell? I was told embryos are not people and that they can be aborted at will.
Oh good. They will be less Hamas members in the future
@C0ngressMadelineForward4wks4W
It is a shame, but this is the outcome that Hamas wants. Their strategy of sacrificing their own people for international support is working.
@ISIDEWITH4wks4W
@ISIDEWITH4wks4W
@ISIDEWITH4wks4W
What are your feelings towards the intersection of modern medical technology, such as IVF, and the realities of war?
@9LMNV78Republican4wks4W
i feel like everyone should know what war is
@9LMNQWH4wks4W
fixing school problems and helping schools deal with there problems
@9LMMMFF4wks4W
I feel that people are way to attached to technology and we should limit how much we use the internet.
@ISIDEWITH4wks4W
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