The Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has led to the killing of more than 11269 women as a result of the direct targeting of buildings and homes, which places many major challenges before women.
The reality of women’s lives before the war was not the best, due to the siege on Gaza and the division between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, though women’s institutions and civil society organizations were succeeding in changing some of the concepts and related laws that protect them and qualify them for the better. Then the ogre of war came to devour all those rights, and women no longer have any system to protect their rights, which is reflected in their reality from all political, social, economic, psychological and health aspects.
Political implications for women
In the shadow of war, the situation of women is extremely difficult due to the loss of home and security as a result of frequent displacement, movement, and living without privacy in public shelters centers that lack all the necessities of life. It should be noted that women constitute half of the 2 million displaced people in Gaza.
The United Nations reported that more than 1 million women and girls are unable to obtain food or clean drinking water, resulting in widespread disease. One of the most serious recent violations against women in the Gaza Strip is their arrest by the occupation authorities and their exposure to serious and unprecedented forms of violence, abuse, and torture.
The war brought women’s political struggle back to square one, throwing their achievements to the wind. Their primary concern, which is harder than ever to address, has become providing security, food, clothing, and drink. Women’s institutions have transformed from human rights institutions into relief institutions, which has increased the severity of gender-based violence, broken families, divorce, and the absence of rights.
Effects on Professional Women
Like other women in the world, Palestinian women in Gaza have held many jobs and operated businesses because they have obtained the highest levels of education. The 'Al-Aqsa Flood' war, however, drowned them in worries that multiply every moment, and this has had an impact on their ability to pursue their careers.
In fact, few professional women are still practicing their work due to displacement and mounting daily needs, especially the endless queues to water sources, food distribution, and even to toilets. Some women continue to work, however, such as Dr. L.N., who works in an emergency department and who told me about her suffering as a doctor during the war. She said that the daily worries of war, from finding wood or gas to light a fire for cooking and searching for water, affected her work as a doctor: “I arrive at work exhausted by the daily chores at home and the worry of being away from the family. Every time I hear the sound of an ambulance pulling up to the hospital, I fear that those in the ambulance may be members of my family, to the point that I have begun begging God that they are injured and not killed. I also feel frustration and despair treating daily cases due to the lack of facilities and the absence of medicines and medical equipment.”
Ms. A.S., a psychological and social counselor, said: “My misfortune is double. In addition to the daily worries about my family, I lost my home due to displacement and I live in a public shelter surrounded by other women in their own worries. I fear for them, for my family and myself, for the future. While treating other women’s problems, I feel that I myself is in need and more entitled to that treatment. Sometimes, I blame myself and accuse myself of lying because I demand of these women to take steps that I myself am unable to implement because of the war.”
There are many female teachers working in the tents and public shelters for the displaced, but they recognize that the daily worries of war are a more immediate problem than ignorance and illiteracy. The teacher S.D. says so what to a failing student who comes to class barefoot or has a contagious skin disease. Unfortunately, the flood of war has taken away all the hopes and dreams of working women and transformed from dreams about the future to immediate and temporary concerns like thinking about water, shelter, and saving their families from death.
Economic and Health Implications for Women
The war on Gaza has led to catastrophic conditions that affect the health and economic status of women, as prices soar, and health services are lacking. Many have lost their husbands and breadwinners, increasing their worries and exacerbating their economic hardship. Most women do the hard work of preparing food, carrying water, and washing clothes by hand.
In some cases, women have been forced to limit the family’s food consumption to one or two meals per day and entirely rely on canned food as the main meal. In addition to the general lack of privacy, they live in tents and use public toilets, if there are any available. Women’s suffering does not stop here. Pregnant and lactating women are exposed to malnutrition. Health data in the Gaza Strip show that pregnant women face serious challenges, most notably the lack of prenatal care due to the difficulty of accessing health facilities the lack of medical services and medicines. Mothers also suffer from a lack of milk production due to malnutrition, which doubles the family’s burden due to the high price of milk in the markets, if available at all. Many family care centers have been transformed into centers for treating the wounded and receiving dead bodies, which has led to an increase in unhealthy and unnatural births, and consequently has an impact on their lives and the lives of the newborns.
The Israeli aggression against Gaza, including the closure of border crossings and the prevention of the entry of humanitarian aid, has had a major impact on the health of women due to the lack of even the most basic hygiene supplies, which forces them to make primitive choices that have a negative impact on their health and hinder their ability to live with dignity. These women have been deprived of all rights, the simplest of which are sanitary pads for the menstrual cycle, which has become a burden on them. In fact, there are women who resort to pills to delay their menstrual cycles.
The war in Gaza has caused one of the most severe and harshest humanitarian crises in the world, affecting everyone in the Strip through killing, wounding, displacement, and starvation. This war is particularly a war on women, resulting in the deterioration of their all areas of their lives and placing before them great challenges and great difficulties that increase their suffering at every moment. It is reflected in their political, economic, social, health, and psychological conditions.
Psychological and Social Repercussions for Women
The war has doubled the suffering of Palestinian women, as additional challenges have emerged due to the occupation’s strikes and aggressive practices. Women continue to suffer from extremely difficult and complex psychological and living conditions, which have resulted in cases of domestic violence, since they have been displaced from their homes and live in inhumane conditions lacking the minimum requirements for living. Women, like other sectors of society, are increasingly under attack, but the reality of women can be considered the most difficult and dangerous due to special considerations. The martyrdom of husbands, sons, and brothers leaves them in shock and often forces them to bear the burden of the entire family. As women, they face the additional difficulty of adapting to living in tents which causes them to lose all forms of privacy. The proximity of the displaced tents in the shelter centers and the reliance on collective bathrooms increases the psychological and social pressures due to the exposure of many girls and women to physical and verbal harassment.
Their own fears and anxieties are exacerbated by worries about the future of the family, particularly the children, which result in psychological disorders and increased rates of domestic and societal violence.
In the shadow of the war, Gaza women have taken on difficult tasks that are not compatible with their physical nature, such as the need to stand in aid queues for long periods of time to get basic substances like bread and water. High prices and the closure of border crossings often force them to rely on canned goods, denying children their nutritional needs. These burdens that challenge the physical and mental capacities of women.
Conclusion
The war constitutes a socioeconomic war, creating the need for new activities and solutions from women’s institutions that divert them from their original vision and goals, transforming them into relief institutions.
Women in this war feel increasingly insecure and unsafe and are deprived of the most basic rights. The loss of their home constitutes a family nightmare, and the fight for survival increases their psychological pressure, feelings of tension, anxiety, agitation, and expectation of death at any moment. They are forced to struggle continuously to secure a safe life for the family, protect their children, and provide psychological and moral support to their families, dealing with all their fears and pretending to be calm in order to reassure their families, which increases their psychological and nervous disorders.
On the social level, the burden of meeting the needs of their families falls primarily on the women. In addition to all the above-mentioned hardships, the lack of stability and the ongoing displacement from one region to another forces women to continuously adapt to new circumstances in every region they move to, contributing to their feelings of chaos, instability, fear, and insecurity.
Palestinian women have been subjected to attacks, including discrimination, violence, deprivation, and the denial of dignity for many years. These attacks doubled after the events of October 7, which exposed them to arrest or death and left them bearing the family health, psychological, economic, and societal burdens. These conditions have become disastrous, further complicating the role and tasks of women. The problem requires major relief efforts to achieve psychological and social support in the short and long term and to develop plans for the future in order for women to achieve economic and social empowerment, to live in dignity, and to benefit from all relevant international laws and legislation.