Ramallah –08/03/2024 – International Women’s Day 2024 will be saddest on record for Palestinians in the midst of the ongoing mass killing, maiming, displacement and starvation of the population of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Occupying Power. On January 26th, 2024, the International Court of Justice’s landmark ruling found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide and issued six precautionary measures. Despite the ICJ ruling, the situation in Gaza has continued to worsen.
UN Women’s latest estimates are that over 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed by Israeli bombing, shelling and sniper fire in Gaza, with countless still missing, as well as thousands of girls. Overall, more than 5% of Gaza’s population has been killed, injured or is missing. Over 3000 women may have become widows, and are new heads of households and sole providers for their children, while having no source of income. Around 1 million women and girls have been displaced. 37 mothers are killed every day in Gaza and 155,000 women are pregnant or breastfeeding. As the overwhelming majority of Gaza hospitals and medical facilities have become non-operational or remained barely functional due to repeated Israeli attacks, destructions, lack of fuel and supplies, many pregnant women have been forced to give birth in the most unsanitary and unsafe conditions imaginable. According to PCBS, 60 thousand women in Gaza are currently pregnant, and 15% of them are most likely to suffer from complications during and after giving birth. Miscarriages have increased by 300%.
UN Women also stated that “More than 4 out of 5 women (84 per cent) report that their family eats half or less of the food they used to before the war began, with mothers and adult women being those tasked with sourcing food, yet eating last, less, and least than everyone else.” As a consequence of the general famine caused by Israeli measures, which include severely restricting entry of international humanitarian aid into Gaza and its distribution to northern Gaza areas, fifteen infants have already died of malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan hospital in North Gaza. Prior to the war on Gaza, women in the West Bank and Gaza were facing multiple forms of violence and discrimination, but nothing can compare to the level of violence against Palestinians in general and women in particular since October 7, 2023.
UN experts have denounced the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children, the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, and the use of sexual violence against Palestinian women detained by Israel, saying “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence […]” The UN experts also expressed concern over the fact that “an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza”.
Countless dreams and hopes of a better future have been shattered. Prior to the war, due to the crushing impact of the blockade, less than one woman of working age out of 10 in Gaza was in employment, with a labor force participation of 16.5% and an unemployment rate of 67.7%, and now most of them have lost their jobs or their businesses, workshops and tools during the massive destruction of residential and commercial areas. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor indicates that 2,120 industrial facilities have been destroyed since the start of the war until March 5. A 37-year-old divorced mother, Samaher, who sought refuge in Rafah after losing two of her children, said: “Me and my children did not get enough food, I had to work under these conditions in displacement camps. Now I am cutting children’s and women’s hair earning an equivalent of 40 shekels per day”. Another beauty salon worker, Wafa, had finally managed to open her own hair salon after working for many years as an employee. She spent about 20,000 US$ in renting a space, remodeling, buying equipment and supplies, adding to pre-existing debts for fertility treatments that enabled her to conceive a child after twenty years. She said: “Unfortunately, this dream quickly evaporated after the seventh of October, when the entire store was bombed and my house was bombed. At that time, I was displaced in Rafah and was not even able to recover anything from the store. I am now homeless, with no housing and no source of income. We face suffering and difficulty to obtain anything these days, and the extremely high prices deprive us of the most basic components of our rights to food, water, housing and work.”
As we share in the commemoration of women’s rights-based struggles worldwide, we ask our sisters and brothers, our comrades and colleagues in trade unions and fellow civil society organizations to continue speaking out and pursue their actions for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and for liberation, justice, peace and security for Palestinian women and men.
On this special day, we call on all States and international organizations to fulfill their obligations under international law, and first and foremost secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, ensure that all required humanitarian aid reaches Gaza’s population, and that a recovery process can start as soon as possible.
