Gaza is fundamentally a protection crisis for women; the war has acted as a catalyst for this crisis. “Women and children are the main victims of the Israel-Hamas war with 16000 killed”, UN says. In addition, out of the 1.9 million people - 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza - that have been displaced, approximately one million are women and girls, seeking refuge in perilous make-shift shelters, yet nowhere and no one is safe. They are forced to decide whether to evacuate, how and when to do so, and where to go. Their experiences are ingrained with gender differentiated fears, as gendered risks including attacks and harassment emerge along displacement routes. 

 

The lack of protection for women and their families is severely impacting women’s psychosocial health. The trauma of daily bombardment leaves both mental and physical scars for women and girls who survive. Lack of access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities for menstrual hygiene management (they are forced to use tent scraps and spare pieces of clothing as period products, if anything), and a lack of sanitary supplies and facilities to dispose of them properly, affects women’s and girls’ dignity as well as their mental and physical health. 

 

In the past fifteen years, 67 percent of all Palestinians killed were men. Today, out of the 24,620 Palestinians that have been killed since October 7th, 70 percent are women and children, including two mothers every hour. Women historically bear the brunt of violence during genocide while being excluded from political choices that would allow them to campaign for the justice they crave. An estimated 3,000 women have lost their husbands and the fathers of over 10,000 children are presumed dead. Women and children are commonly grouped together during war, and targeting them ultimately targets the very life of a nation as they have proven that while they may be the most vulnerable, they are also the glue of the society and it can never recover without them.

 

Cases of rape and sexual assault are typically more frequent during conflict than peacetime. This form of violence can be divided into three overarching categories: a war tactic, widely committed with an intentional purpose; tolerated, but not specifically ordered, by leaders; and committed independently by individuals when the opportunity arises. Since 7th October, Hamas has raped Israeli citizens, including reports of assault in the tunnels, and Israeli women have been raped and sexually violated/assaulted under Hamas captivity on a mass scale. The brutality of war rape is evident in genital mutilation, forced captivity, gang rapes in public or in front of family members, and rape with objects such as sticks and gun. Psychologically the effects are no less devastating. Traumatised by the event, women are often unable to care for their children or households, fear leaving their homes, can become socially ostracised and isolated, and may be rejected by their husbands, families, or communities. Furthermore, the physical consequences can include unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and genital injury including fistula, all of which can leave women scarred, disabled, unable to conceive, and deemed unsuitable for marriage. The Times interviewed several soldiers and volunteer medics who together described finding more than 30 bodies of Palestinian women and girls in and around the rave site and in two kibbutzim in a similar state as Ms. Abdush’s — legs spread, clothes torn off, signs of abuse in their genital areas. They viewed photographs of one woman’s corpse that emergency responders discovered in the rubble of a besieged kibbutz with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin. Eight volunteer medics and two Israeli soldiers told The Times that in at least six different houses, they had come across a total of at least 24 bodies of women and girls naked or half naked, some mutilated, others tied up, and often alone.

 

Among Gaza's population, more than 540,000 people – about one in four – are women and girls of reproductive age with approximately 50,000 currently pregnant. The inhumane conditions that women are being forced to endure has led to miscarriages skyrocketing and women undergoing C-sections without anaesthesia. Babies are being "delivered into hell" amid the decimation of their healthcare system.

 

Women have earned their place at the heart of Palestinian society by preserving the nation's proud identity; their lives are said to be a journey of resistance within colonial context. They have long been politicised individuals as leaders with agency that is not defined by their male relationships or reproductive ability. It is agreed that feminism is a work in progress, and despite women being icons of Palestinian politics, they are typically excluded from political decisions despite the leadership they struggle to provide and their constant presence while they attempt to negotiate feminism, nationality and anti colonialism. White / Western feminism evidently neglects women in the Gaza strip as they do other women in conflict; the longstanding lack of recognition emphasises the need to raise the voices of women in conflict and as leaders worldwide, who must collaborate despite their different social ideologies.

 

It is now more than 100 days since the horrors of the Hamas attacks on Israel of 7 October and the horrors that have followed, especially in Gaza. This is a time for peace. We owe this to all Israeli and Palestinian women and girls. This is not their conflict. They must no longer pay its price.

 

 

Verity James

Peter Symonds College