[News] The Plight of Palestinian Women Amid Ongoing Gaza Genocide

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The Plight of Palestinian Women Amid Ongoing Gaza Genocide
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*The Plight of Palestinian Women Amid Ongoing Gaza Genocide*

/Updated translation of a joint/// 
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=caa7e39819&e=08c14cf485>/statement/ 
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=c79616e42d&e=08c14cf485>/originally 
published in Arabic on 23 December 2023. /

Since the start of Israel’s all-out war on Gaza, the humanitarian 
situation has deteriorated to catastrophic levels. Currently, the entire 
Palestinian population in Gaza, including men, the elderly, children and 
women, struggle to stay alive and survive amid Israel’s genocide. 1.1 
million Palestinian women and girls have been severely impacted, with 
over 90 percent of them being displaced, enduring harsh conditions and 
lacking basic needs for survival.

Over 6,200 women have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli 
strikes. In addition to the catastrophic and dire conditions faced by 
all the people of Gaza, women endure an additional layer of suffering 
characterised due to a scarcity of basic hygiene products, a lack of 
privacy and, in many instances, the responsibility of caring for several 
family members. Palestinian civil society organisation MIFTAH referred 
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=6806862a4c&e=08c14cf485> 
to Gaza as a place where ‘womanhood [is] denied’. We resoundingly share 
these grave concerns.

Of the 2.23 million people living in Gaza, approximately 1.13 million 
are male, and 1.10 million are female – 49.3% of the population. 
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are 
546,000 females aged 15 to 49, 58% of whom are married. Reports have 
also indicated that in Gaza, around 50,000 women are pregnant, 
approximately 5,500 of whom are expected to give birth in the coming 
weeks. The estimated daily number of newborns in Gaza is 183.

Pregnant women in Gaza are at serious risk due to the collapse of the 
healthcare system, the resulting lack of medical care and the challenges 
they experience in accessing hospitals. Many women, unable to reach 
hospitals, are forced to give birth wherever they have been displaced 
to, including shelters, exposing themselves and their newborns to 
serious health risks.

Amid the stress and trauma caused by bombardment and displacement 
throughout their pregnancies, Palestinian women are deprived 
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=a178303625&e=08c14cf485> 
of proper medical care and routine checkups, which is particularly 
dangerous for women in their final three months of pregnancy, and 
newborns are not given the necessary vaccinations, since they are 
unavailable in Gaza. Furthermore, pregnant and lactating mothers lack 
access to the nutritious and healthy diet they need. It is estimated 
that in Gaza 155,000 women are either pregnant or lactating, and 135,000 
babies are under two years old.

Based on documentation collected by our field researchers, when people 
have been relocated, women in particular struggle in the overcrowded 
shelters. As noted above they lack hygiene products and suffer from an 
almost complete absence of privacy, especially in tents and spaces like 
classrooms that have been converted into shelters. Moreover, women face 
difficulties accessing shared facilities, including bathrooms utilised 
by hundreds of individuals, and accordingly suffer from a scarcity of 
water and a lack of suitable places for showering.

Thousands of women, along with their families, endure the harsh winter 
cold, especially difficult given the shortage of blankets  and warm 
clothing, when most of their belongings are lost or left behind each 
time they are displaced.

Like the rest of the displaced people in Gaza, women also suffer from 
hunger due to a severe lack of food supplies. This suffering is 
particularly harsh for pregnant and lactating mothers,  most of whom 
will eat, at best, one meal a day.

Elderly women struggle to obtain necessary medication, and must endure 
the cold without adequate heating or proper clothing. Again, this is 
particularly difficult for those taking shelter in schools or tents, 
where access to bathrooms is limited and there is a shortage of water.

Women who have lost their husbands, brothers and fathers during the 
ongoing aggression now find themselves the sole provider for their 
families and children, and need to fetch food for them in a situation 
already described as catastrophic.

*Nuha Hazem Asraf, a mother of two*, including a newborn, told our field 
researchers:

/‘My first displacement was on the second day of the Israeli military 
attack. I was seven months pregnant at the time. Since then, I was 
forcibly displaced multiple times due to the bombardments and evacuation 
orders, until I reached southern Gaza. I couldn’t do any follow ups with 
a gynaecologist, and my caesarean was postponed three times because of 
the difficult situation in hospitals. When the surgery was finally 
performed, I was only half sedated. I had to leave the hospital before 
the needed rest time, and I had no clothes for the baby with me 
whatsoever. I got some later through humanitarian aid. Later, I 
struggled to acquire a vaccine for the baby and lacked diapers and 
formula milk for her and her older brother, who is less than two years 
old. I myself didn’t have the food I needed as a lactating mum and I 
have anaemia.’/

*Amna Abd Al Hadi Al Batsh, a mother of six, one of whom is a child with 
a disability*, was displaced several times. Amna took refuge in a home 
with relatives, but the home was later bombed, resulting in the killing 
of 16 people, including her son. She told our field researchers the 
following:

/‘I couldn’t bid farewell to my son because of the bombardment. I was 
displaced multiple times from one place to the other. We couldn’t find a 
tent in the shelter areas, and that was the case for some time. We 
struggled to find food and water for our children. We depend on one meal 
per day to survive and prioritise our children. We left our home without 
any official documents, and this has hindered our ability to receive 
aid. I have a child with a disability. She is 5 years old, and needs 
diapers and special clothing, and none of this is available. The markets 
are also empty. We ended up living in a storage area with 20 other 
people. I know nothing of my husband and the rest of my close relatives.’/

According to the Ministry of Health, it is estimated that over 20,915 
Palestinians were killed between 7 October and 26 December 2023, 
including over 8,000 children and 6,200 women, and over 53,000 
Palestinians have been injured, around 70% of whom are children and women.

Our organisations—Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human 
Rights (PCHR)—continue to closely monitor the situation in Gaza and the 
devastating impacts of the Israeli military aggression: the heavy 
bombardment by air, land and sea and the land incursions on the 
districts of Gaza, northern Gaza and large parts of Khan Younis. We are 
following reports of serious crimes, including summary executions and 
willful killings, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances.

Our field reports indicate that the areas affected by the recent 
evacuation orders are densely populated with thousands of displaced 
women, men and children from the northern areas of Gaza and also from 
Khan Younis. These people have been compelled to move once more to new 
areas that are consistently coming under Israeli airstrikes, leaving 
them without safe haven and in areas where there is  insufficient space 
for them to relocate. As we have stated multiple times, there is no safe 
place in the Gaza Strip, from its north to its south. Severe 
overcrowding, where hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into a 
limited geographical area, has led to a catastrophic situation.

Thomas White, the Director of UNRWA in 
Gaza,<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=3edeb2513d&e=08c14cf485>commented 
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=64c2f88cb5&e=08c14cf485>, 
‘[p]eople in Gaza are people. They are not pieces on a checkerboard – 
many have already been displaced several times. The Israeli Army just 
orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No 
place is safe, nowhere to go.’

In the face of all of this, we urge women and feminist organisations and 
movements globally to act swiftly and stand against the oppression faced 
by Palestinian women in Gaza. Palestinian women deserve to live in 
freedom and in dignity. We urge that pressure is exerted on Israel to 
stop its genocide against 2.23 million Palestinians in Gaza.

We renew our demand for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the Israeli 
military aggression on the Gaza Strip and a halt to all genocidal acts 
against our people.

We call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to 
expedite practical steps and to advance the ICC investigation into the 
situation in Palestine, and to hold accountable perpetrators of war 
crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Palestinian victims, who 
have long awaited justice and redress, continue to suffer amid grave 
escalation of hostilities—each time more violent—as international 
inaction enables Israel to entrench, with impunity, its settler 
colonialism, its 75-year-long apartheid regime and its 56-year-long 
occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory.

It is high time for the Prosecutor of the ICC to cease the double 
standards and selectivity in addressing war crimes, crimes against 
humanity and the crime of genocide. Immediate and meaningful action, 
including the issuance of arrest warrants, is urgently needed to ensure 
accountability for the perpetrators and justice for victims.

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