Israel’s destruction of Gaza affects Gazans’ epigenetic code
JVL Introduction
This article was published last year, not long before the ceasefire that is not a ceasefire was announced. Having missed it then, it seems timely to remind ourselves of some aspects of the impact of what the people of Gaza have been experiencing since – and, indeed, before – October 7th 2023.
There has been a rise in cancer, birth defects and to Palestinians’ DNA. Those trying to address this have to work in a context without peace or the necessary health facilities, medicine and other medical supplies. How are people to recover in the conditions they are currently enduring? Even if the killing and Israeli control over Gaza and their taking over of most of the land were to stop tomorrow, people would still mainly be trying to survive – and recover – in tents with nearly all of the infrastructure destroyed.
Gazan paediatrician Dr Ahmed Hijazi says, “In…Gaza, children are repeatedly exposed to war, trauma, the loss of family and their homes. This not only affects their immediate psychological health, but also leaves a biological impact on their bodies and the future of their genetics.”
Then there is the intergenerational impact of trauma, which has been observed in Vietnam and through research with the descendants of Holocaust survivors. This found “higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol,” which resulted from epigenetic changes. Despite not living through the Holocaust, decendants “inherited some of its effects.”
“If, over 80 years later, the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors carry its mark in their DNA to this day, what about Palestinians in Gaza, who have lived through many wars?”
This article was originally published by The New Arab on Thu 2 Oct 2025. Read the original here.
Israel's genocide in Gaza is not only killing people, it is mutating the epigenetic code of Palestinians
The ongoing genocide in Gaza is reshaping genetics, with toxins, trauma and stress altering DNA, passing the war’s impact to future generations of Palestinians
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Unsurprising findings (to me), but very sad.
Israel’s offensive wars since 1947 and the repeated wars on Gaza and Lebanon and the unending assaults in the West Bank, where the IDF and settler terrorists uproot refugee camps, fields of olive trees and using pesticides on agricultural land, the poisoning of wells and Israel’s long used practice of contaminating water sources with diseases like cholera, make it an embodiment of evil. The practices of extreme destruction and killings, and the demolition of homes and whole villages, even of hospitals, and the use of massive bombings and drones carrying cluster bombs with fine shrapnel that can penetrate anywhere are wa crimes of undefinable proportions. Israel, and the US and UK who are complicit weapon suppliers are also in eth category of war criminals who should be prosecuted. We should work to get all wars stopped immediately and laws to make wars illegal and the weapons manufacturers also complicit who must be curbed, fined and prosecuted. The world will be generating into a toxic mess unless action is taken urgently.