Hopes of motherhood crushed after IVF embryos destroyed in Israel's Gaza offensive

"My nerves are shattered," says Noura, a 26-year-old Palestinian woman, explaining that she has been "left with nothing".

After years of IVF treatment, she became pregnant in July 2023. "I was overjoyed," she remembers, describing the moment she saw the positive pregnancy test.

She and her husband Mohamed decided to store two more embryos at Al-Basma Fertility Centre in Gaza City, which had helped them conceive, in the hope of having more children in the future.

"I thought my dream had finally come true," she says. "But the day the Israelis came in, something in me said it was all over."

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Since then at least 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry.

Like thousands of Gazans, Noura and Mohamed had to repeatedly flee, and were unable to get the food, vitamins and medication she needed for a healthy pregnancy.

"We used to walk for long hours and move constantly from one place to another, amid terrifying random bombings," says Mohamed.

Seven months into her pregnancy, Noura suffered a severe haemorrhage.

"She was bleeding heavily, and we couldn't even find a vehicle to take her to the hospital. We finally managed to transport her in a garbage truck," Mohamed explains.

"When we arrived, the miscarriage had already started."

One of their twins was stillborn and the other died a few hours after birth. Mohamed says there were no incubators for premature babies available.

"Everything was gone in a minute," says Noura.

As well as losing the twins, they have also lost their frozen embryos.

The director of Al-Basma Fertility Centre, Dr Baha Ghalayini, speaks with sorrow and disbelief as he explains that it was shelled in early December 2023.

He is unable to provide an exact date or time and bases this estimate on the last time a member of staff saw the fertility centre operational.

Dr Ghalayini says the most important part of the clinic housed two tanks that held nearly 4,000 frozen embryos and more than 1,000 samples of sperm and eggs.

"The two destroyed incubators - which cost over $10,000 - were filled with liquid nitrogen that preserved the samples," he says.

They needed to be topped up regularly and "about two weeks before the shelling, the nitrogen began to run low and evaporate".

The laboratory director, Dr Mohamed Ajjour, who had been displaced to southern Gaza, says he "made it to the nitrogen warehouse in Al-Nuseirat, and got two tanks".

But he says the intensity of the shelling prevented him from delivering them to the clinic, about 12km away: "The centre was shelled and the nitrogen became useless."

Dr Ghalayini says the centre stored embryos for patients being treated at other clinics as well as their own. "I'm talking about 4,000 frozen embryos. These are not just numbers, they're people's dreams. People who waited years, went through painful treatments, and pinned their hopes on these tanks that were ultimately destroyed."

He estimates that between 100 and 150 women lost what may have been their only chance at having children, as many cannot undergo the procedure again. "Some are getting older, some are cancer patients, others suffer chronic illnesses. Many received strong fertility medications that they can receive just once. Starting again is not easy."

Dr Ghalayini says all of Gaza's nine fertility clinics have either been destroyed or are no longer able to operate.

Noura explains that leaves her and many others with little chance of ever having a child. People like Sara Khudari, who began her fertility treatment in 2020. She was preparing for an embryo to be implanted when the war began in October 2023. The procedure never happened. "I watched everything collapse," she says.

And Islam Lubbad, who Al-Basma clinic helped to conceive in 2023, a few months before the war broke out. But a month after the fighting started, she lost her baby, like Noura. "There was no stability. We kept relocating. My body was exhausted," she says, recalling how she miscarried.

Islam did have more frozen embryos stored at Al-Basma Fertility Centre, but they have now been lost and there are no IVF clinics operating left for her to try to get pregnant again.