Women In Gaza Remain Among The Most Impacted By War
By Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service
As the world celebrated International Working Women’s Day on March 8, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) reported that Israel had killed at least 9,000 women in Gaza since October 7. That amounts to 63 women killed each day, of whom 37 were mothers. The PCBS reported that 75 percent of the wounded are women.
In the aftermath of destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure all over Gaza, overcrowding in camps in the southern part of the region has pushed women into living conditions last seen a century ago, Islamic Relief said in a statement published ahead of March 8.
Many women and girls are only able to wash once every 10-14 days, given the number of people in camps and number of showers available. Essential sanitary supplies, including menstrual pads, are either nowhere to be found or extremely expensive. This is causing women to use alternative materials, including tent scraps, or wear the same pads for a prolonged period of time, increasing the risk of infections.
Pregnant women and mothers of newborns face particular dangers. Over 50,000 women are pregnant in Gaza, with approximately 180 births taking place every day. But the health facilities to facilitate births and provide postnatal care to women have been razed to the ground. Only a handful of hospitals are still able to provide at least partial maternity services, but even those, like the Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, are exposed to risks of bombardments and shelling.
