Women’s rights are considered a core value of civilized societies, where women symbolize respect, love, and care. However, severe violations of women’s rights have been reported throughout Palestine, especially in Gaza, by Israeli occupation forces. Women of all age groups have faced marginalization through killings, physical assaults, hunger, and severe psychological trauma. Women in Gaza have lost their sense of security and privacy due to displacement and home demolitions. The article discusses about the major challenges women of Gaza are facing during the war.
Since 7 October 2023, 59,000 Palestinians have died, with women and children making up more than half of all fatalities. According to 19 May 2025, UN Women’s analysis estimates that more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed in Gaza since the onset of hostilities in October 2023.
Lack of access to food in Gaza is leading to hunger and ultimately acute famine. UN officials, aid groups, and experts have warned that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are on the brink of famine without formally declaring one. The UN World Food Program says Gaza’s hunger crisis has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation. UN World Food Program’ director for emergencies Ross Smith,, mentioned that nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza’s population is going days without eating. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health, Gaza, has reported over 100 deaths due to starvation and malnutrition since October 2023. They mentioned that most of the 100 are women and children.
Due to the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, women’s primary healthcare services have been severely impacted. UN experts described the situation as a “war on women,” citing extreme hunger, lack of clean water, sanitary products, and reproductive health services, with over 5,500 pregnant women facing high-risk conditions.
According to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), about 84% of health facilities in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, leaving only a few hospitals partially operational. These facilities lack essential medicines, electricity, and water, greatly hindering the delivery of maternal and reproductive healthcare. According to a report by UN Women (May 2024), more than 540,000 women and adolescent girls lack access to essential menstrual and reproductive care. The miscarriage rate has tripled since October 2023, and many women are forced to give birth without medical assistance, raising the risk of complications and maternal mortality. This situation is not only dangerous physically but also negatively affects the psychological well-being of women during this crisis.
Living in camps or as Internally Displaced People (IDPs) is a most challenging task for women, which leads to stress and depression as well. According to the Joint World Bank, UN report released on April 2, 2024, over a million people in Gaza are homeless, and 75% of the population is displaced, including families, especially women.
According to the January 2025 United Nations Population Fund report, titled Surviving Gaza: The Silent Struggles of Adolescent Girls, young girls are facing widespread anxiety, post-traumatic stress Disorder (PTSD), nightmares, and loss of safety. The report further mentioned that one 15-year-old said, “Our life became a tragedy after enduring multiple displacements, hunger, and trauma”. It is alarming to note that 91% girls reported worsening health, and many face limited access to hygiene, which increases stress.
Moreover, a 2025 study involving 952 displaced Palestinians who fled Gaza during the 2024 war found alarmingly high rates of mental health disorders, with 84.5% experiencing moderate to severe depression, 79.3% suffering from anxiety, and 67.8% meeting full PTSD criteria (rising to 88.2% using cutoff scores alone). Women were disproportionately affected, showing significantly higher levels of anxiety and PTSD. The report further highlighted the cause of rising stress and depression, which includes repeated displacement, unemployment, the death of close family members, and exposure to detention or torture. The findings highlight a severe mental health crisis among Gaza’s displaced population and underscore the urgent need for large-scale, trauma-informed psychological support.
Keeping in view the women’s suffering in Gaza, there is a dire need to end the year-long war between Israel and Palestine because the ongoing war has more social implications on human livelihood than its political advantage. The international community must hold Israel accountable for its violation of the international rule-based order, which is following the path of its interest-based order. Israel’s direct or indirect targeting of women and children is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and goes against the established norms of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
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The article is well written, based on facts, data, and comprehensive analysis. The well-documented Op-Ed draws on sources/data from mostly UN Reports, which lends authenticity to the argument. The article explicitly highlighted the most important element of Israel's brutalization of Women and Children, which has never been documented in such an Op-Ed format. I congratulate the author for writing on this most neglected topic. Thank you for drawing our attention to such an important issue.