Content Warning: This article contains lengthy discussions about the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people and the ways in which this disproportionately impacts women. We advise reader discretion before reading and encourage you to aid the cause for Gazan Liberation in any way that you can. We have linked resources, and another article on our website at the end of this article contains information on how you can play your part.
Since the 7th of October, Israel has continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, forcibly moving its people ever closer to the southern border with Egypt and compounding the already dense Gazan population into tighter and tighter confines. The ongoing genocide in Gaza has already claimed 30,800 lives as of the 8th of March and has displaced an estimated 1.7 million people. Both numbers are set to rise as Israel continues its offensive on Gaza and Western powers turn a blind eye to the continued campaign to wipe out Gaza’s people. As of now, Hamas’ casualties count just over 1000 people, something still horrific but dwarfed by Israel’s actions.
This “conflict” has disproportionately impacted women in Gaza. This is nothing new, as throughout history, women have been disproportionately impacted by armed conflict. This is for several reasons; women are already socially positioned with less privilege than men, and women are also likely to be victims of rape in armed conflicts as it is used as a tool of genocide. Women are also positioned in most cultures as the maintainers of the home; in conflict, resources grow scarce and social expectations of women are tested.
In Gaza, specifically, of the 1.7 million people displaced, approximately 1 million of them are women and girls, according to a recent report by UN Women. In the same report, it is estimated that two mothers are killed every hour, meaning that the number of orphaned children is growing exponentially. At least 3000 women have become new widows. The close-knit family units in Gaza that form a strong foundation of Palestinian culture have been torn apart amid bombshells and bullets. It is also worth noting that since the genocide began, around 70% of all casualties have been women and girls. Before the conflict, the opposite was true, with roughly 70% of deaths attributed to Israeli aggression against Gazans being male.
Beyond the raw numbers, which alone are deeply disturbing, the social impacts of the genocide on women are profound. Israel has destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza with impunity and brutality. They have destroyed hospitals, schools, places of worship, and homes. While this impacts everyone, it has also meant that there are now no safe places for women to flee when facing domestic abuse and violence. The lack of safe spaces for women is profound, as women who need to seek refuge no longer have anywhere to go to find safety. This issue is only compounded by the fact that as tensions grow in refugee dwellings between families, there is an increased risk of gender-based violence with little, if any, rest bite or networks of support for women experiencing violence within their communities.
The lack of safety is a defining aspect of the experience of women through displacement. While Gazan men have been subject to indiscriminate detention at the hands of Israel, women have faced these pressures as well as additional risks. The Gazan genocide has followed a pattern as Israel has consistently pushed the population further and further south, moving boundaries of alleged ‘safe zones’ closer to Rafah, the final part of Gaza before the Egyptian border. As the Palestinian people have been pushed further and further south, almost all on foot, this has meant that there are a growing number of people who are disabled or too elderly to make the journey toward what can only be described as fragile safety. This has had the additional result that women have often been the ones to stay behind in active shelling zones to care for relatives who cannot make the arduous and dangerous journey. Women are caught in the crossfire because they are predominantly caregivers. This is a responsibility that positions them in active danger and has contributed to the growing death toll of women in this genocide.
Gazan people are living in some of the most uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions, often in large shared dwellings with little to no privacy. One of the ways that this has impacted women is through the lack of sanitary products available for them. Food and water are incredibly scarce, with hardly any rations or aid making its way into Gaza, and this means that sanitary products are also often just a distant memory for the women caught in this conflict. Women and girls in Gaza are resorting to drastic and often dangerous methods to retain dignity and privacy as they have their periods. Reports have shown that women are using scraps of fabric from tents in place of pads. They also have little access to any means of bathing, meaning that women go for days, if not weeks, without being able to properly clean, which worsens general health as well as gynaecological health. In a report from ActionAid, one woman in South Gaza stated, “There is no water. I suffered during my period. There was no water available for me to get clean during my period. I had no sanitary pads for my own needs throughout my period.”
Outside of the basic need for sanitary products, we know that women and girls often deprioritise themselves in crises and direct scarce food and water to their children and to male family members they need to care for. This means that already an already rampantly escalating malnourishment crisis is hitting women harder. Barely any food is making its way into Gaza, and what is finding its way in is simply not enough. The continued restriction on aid is hurting women and breaking down the infrastructure of families dramatically. There are also increasingly fewer functioning toilets in Gaza, increasing the already poor sanitary conditions for women in refugee camps.
We also must look at what happens when this genocide is over, one way or another. The entirety of Gaza is rubble, and Israel shows no signs of slowing down or being brought to meaningful justice on the international stage. Women in Gaza, after the final bomb has been dropped, will be left with nothing. Many have lost husbands, and many have lost children. The rate of miscarriages in Gaza has swelled to 300% of the normal rate, while pregnant women are enduring C-sections without anaesthetic or painkillers. Displaced women face continued pressures and challenges when they escape a conflict zone. They are at greater risk of human trafficking, including forced entry into the sex trade. They also often find themselves responsible for children without the extended family units they are used to for help, all this while having little access to food and few, if any, avenues to make a living.
Women in Gaza are on the frontlines of a genocide that is being allowed to continue with ignorance at best and active support at worst from a majority of Western governments. As allies of Palestine, we must acknowledge this genocide in its many layers, with the nuance we would want our own lives to be discussed with. As always, The New Feminist stands as an intersectional and pacificst publication in support of Gaza.
Please click here for Operation Olive Branch, an initiative to help fund Gazan families flee to safety in Egypt, and here for an earlier article with a collection of things you can do to help support Gaza.
