Gaza records 260 congenital anomaly cases in 9 months, exceeding 2022 total: Health Ministry

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday that 260 cases of congenital anomalies were recorded among newborns during the first nine months of 2026, surpassing the 184 cases documented throughout 2022, Anadolu reports. Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh described the figures as a serious health warning and called for an independent international scientific investigation into the reasons behind the increase. The ministry said 322 cases were recorded in 2025, a 75% increase compared with 2022. Bursh expressed concern over the rise amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, starvation, displacement and the collapse of healthcare services. The anomalies requiring surveillance and specialized care include cleft lip and palate, atypical external genitalia that can make determining a newborn’s gender difficult, shortened upper limbs and […]