Gaza 'most dangerous place in the world' to be a woman
Charity ActionAid warns two mothers are killed every hour in the Gaza Strip
Women and girls in Gaza face alarming levels of brutality with more than three women killed every hour, a charity has warned.
Thousands of women in the besieged enclave have been killed during the recent escalation of violence sparked by Hamas insurgents' brutal assault on 7 October, which itself has prompted the gathering of more than 1,500 testimonies about Hamas fighters committing sexual violence during the attack.
The Hamas-run health ministry puts the toll in Gaza at more than 4,000 women, constituting nearly 70% of the total death toll in the region. The numbers tell a grim story – two mothers lose their lives each hour, and seven women perish every two hours.
Yara, a mother and humanitarian worker displaced to southern Gaza, told ActionAid: "Today, I no longer have hope. I have become more afraid than before. Every day that passes, this fear and terror increases more. I, as a mother, have only two wishes. The first thing I wish is that I die before my children. I don't want to see my children die in front of me.
“The second wish is that I die quickly, so when the missile comes to bomb us, I die quickly and I do not stay under the rubble for 16, 17, 18 hours.” she added.
Watch: Midwife says pregnant women in great danger in Gaza
The crisis extends to maternal health, with about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza risking their lives daily due to the lack of adequate medical care.
Naimah, a midwife at Al-Awda hospital, recounted the experiences of pregnant women in Gaza to ActionAid, including that of one woman whose house was bombed. Despite suffering multiple injuries, the woman was in active labour and urgently taken to the operating room. Both mother and child were lucky to survive.
“This woman, who had suffered physical abuse due to the attacks, will also suffer mental health and psychological repercussions. Food scarcity will heavily affect her milk supply when she’s breastfeeding her baby,” said Naimah.
Riham Jafari, coordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine and a gender specialist said: “Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl right now. The number of women and girls being senselessly killed in this violence rises by the hour.”
Hana, a doctor at ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda hospital in the north of Gaza recounts another incident: “One woman's house was bombed, resulting in her needing an emergency C-Section. She lost her newborn, tragically, her husband and the rest of her children were also killed. This woman, who dreamt of a safe family life, is now grappling with mental health issues after losing her newborn and family.”
What is gender-based violence?
The issue of gender violence in warzones is one of major concern to human rights organisations. Sexual violence in conflict zones is a gross violation of human rights, recognised as a war crime as rape as a weapon of war, and a crime against humanity under international law.
The Hamas attack on 7 October, in which more than 1,200 civilians and soldiers in Israel were killed, includes accounts of rape and mutilation to the UN.
"The reports of alleged sexual violence during the attacks on October 7 are also extremely concerning and must be investigated," ActionAid said.
US president Joe Biden said of the accounts last week: “Reports of women raped, repeatedly raped, and their bodies being mutilated while still alive. Of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them."
Human Rights Watch has warned that, while there is little data on current trends in Gaza, women and girls typically are at increased risk of sexual violence in times of armed conflict.
The risk of HIV transmission heightens without access to sexual and reproductive health services, including emergency contraception and psychosocial support.
These critical needs are at risk of going unmet as Gaza already struggles to treat those injured by Israeli airstrikes, women urgently require medical supplies, treatment for injuries and diseases, including psychosocial support.
The United Nations defines violence against women as, ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women.
In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, 87% of women had experienced gender-based violence, while in Yemen, a woman dies in childbirth every two hours. In South Sudan, more than 65% of women face sexual or physical violence, and more than 40% of Nigerian girls marry before 18.
Now, with the conflict in Ukraine, the alarming reality persists: women and girls are particularly targeted during wartime, including as a tactic of war.
Read more: Israel battles Hamas as UN labels Gaza 'hell on earth' (AFP)
Displacement of women
In Gaza the displacement of 800,000 women, often multiple times, exacerbates the crisis, leading to overcrowded facilities with severe sanitation challenges.
‘We are among the displaced people from Beit Lahia from the north of the Gaza Strip. We have no clothes and no water. We go to a far place to gather water. It is not only the lack of clothes or cold weather, but until now we have slept on the ground. The rain has impacted us,” Lina told ActionAid.
Women and girls, living in these conditions, lack essential hygiene resources, privacy, and face additional hardships during menstruation.
Aya, a displaced mother, voiced her struggles: "As a woman, I’m suffering. I don’t have access to the basic necessities of life. 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.”
Psychological impact
Even before the current war women and girls had experienced human rights violations due to Israel’s blockade and previous offensives, impacting their mental health. Now with the crisis the psychological toll on women and girls in Gaza is severe, ActionAid has said.
“The war is disproportionately affecting women. Women who have lost their children, husbands, relatives and family members will continue having feelings of sadness for years,” ActionAid's Riham Jafari told Yahoo News.
“Women who have children with deep injuries will feel pain and sorrow for them. They will be frustrated as those children could not be treated under the collapse of the health system in Gaza.”
Read more: Keir Starmer Says He Still Does Not Support A Ceasefire In Gaza (HP 2-min read)
The future
Last Friday the United States vetoed and Britain abstained on the UN resolution at the UN Security Council to pause hostilities.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in response that the US "displayed a callous disregard for civilian suffering” and “brazenly wielded and weaponised its veto to strongarm the UN Security Council”.
ActionAid says that women and girls in Gaza feel the world has abandoned them and the NGO is demanding a permanent ceasefire.
For women like Inaya, a displaced woman from East Rafah, whose home was destroyed by bombing, fled with her family to southern Gaza, will continue to face the challenging conditions of living in a refugee camp.
“Don’t we need to sleep or [water] to drink? Don’t we deserve protection?” she asks.
Watch: UN warns of starvation and collapse of order in Gaza
