Abbasi emphasizes the responsibility of the medical community to prevent and stop genocide. A recent study found that injuries in Gaza are more severe than in other conflicts. In Gaza, there is a predictable confluence of biochemical, nutritional, and psychological insults that threaten the neurodevelopment of an entire generation. Systematic epidemiological studies correlating current environmental exposures with neonatal outcomes are not yet available. Toxic residues of modern warfare, especially heavy metals from bombing, cross the placental barrier and impair fetal development. Doctors in Gaza are reporting premature births, very low birth weight babies and severe congenital anomalies of the nervous, cardiac and skeletal systems. These patterns are similar to those documented two decades ago in Iraq.