Women Of Gaza Amid War: Sacrifice And Struggle For Survival

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Report by Palestine News Agency (WAFA) as part of women file by the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA)

By Aseel Al-Akhras GAZA, Sept 12 (KUNA) -- Since the tragedy began in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, women in Gaza have faced a harsh reality of deep pain and legendary resilience.
These women have been paying a heavy price in this brutal war that has touched every aspect of life. Thousands have lost their husbands and children, increased their burdens and threatened the future of their families.
Gazaآ's women suffer from a lack of security, healthcare and protection due to the collapse of infrastructure, a critical shortage of basic resources under the ongoing blockade and rising gender-based violence.
As mothers, wives, providers and defenders of life, Gazaآ's women struggle not only for their own survival but to protect their families and preserve the remnants of life amid massive destruction.
Their suffering is multifaceted: from forced displacement, loss of shelter, food and health insecurity, to deep psychological trauma from violence and loss.
Siham Jarabaa, from Khan Younes, lost her husband, home, any sense of safety as well as no access to food. "I have lost everything. I live in sorrow and poverty I have never known before," she told WAFA news agency.
In January, an Israeli occupation airstrike destroyed her home, killing her husband and leaving her injured. After three days in intensive care and 15 days in the hospital, she was displaced with her in-laws to a makeshift tent in Al-Mawasi. The living conditions are inhumane with insects, no toilets, clean water or sanitation.
Now, she supports eight children, the eldest being 13, including her stepson Abdulraheem, who used to help collect food aid. He was killed in August 2025.
Abdulraheem had appeared barefoot in a viral image holding a small bag of lentils and rice before disappearing after being seen kissing the hand of an Israeli occupation soldier at a distribution center in Rafah.
"I walk for hours each day to reach the aid points despite my injuries and the heat," said Jarabaa. "Sometimes I risk my life and return empty-handed, only to try again the next day." Her deepest fear is losing another child after already losing her husband and stepson. "I pray this war ends before winter. Our tent canآ't protect us from the cold." Noor Ashour, a 40-year-old mother of six, lost her eldest son Mohsen, 19, on August 3, 2025. She miscarried due to grief, malnutrition and lack of medicine.
With a husband suffering from mental illness, her son had taken on the responsibility of getting food aid but was killed like many others at a distribution center.
"Weآ've been displaced over and over. We moved from Gaza City to Deir Al-Balah, then back to Gaza, but could not access our destroyed home. Now we live in a university building with 60 families, surviving on a single daily meal of rice from charity kitchens," she said. "People now call aid distribution points آ'death traps.آ'" Women form the Palestinian society, making up nearly 49 percent of the population about 2.71 million females (1.06 million in Gaza) by the end of 2024.
Since the war began, women and children have made up 75 percent of the victims.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, over 64,455 people have been killed, including 12,400 women. Up to 4,700 missing women and children. Nearly two million people have been displaced, half of them women.
Women now carry the burden of providing for their families under suffocating economic conditions, compounded by the destruction and blockade.
According to Womenآ's Affairs Minister Mona Al-Khalili, over 60,000 women became widows since the war began, left to care for 25,000 and 30,000 new orphans.
She described this as the most difficult phase in the history of Palestinian women, with massive destruction to homes, schools, hospitals and the social fabric.
"Women lost everything: homes, income and safety," she said. With unprecedented unemployment, many have become the sole breadwinners under nearly impossible conditions.
She outlined key challenges: economic hardship, food and water shortages, loss of income, lack of security and displacement, which has destroyed family networks and social support systems.
However, Palestinian women, she said, continue to resist and survive, turning their suffering into strength.
The government, she added, was working to protect women and girls, in light of genocidal acts, forced displacement, starvation and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women are among the most vulnerable. A Save the Children assessment in July found that 43 percent of 747 women were malnourished.
According to Amnesty International, these women live in tents under the scorching sun, fighting daily for food, clean water and baby formula.
UNRWA reported on August 16, 2025, that over one million women and girls in Gaza face famine and abuse, as they resort to dangerous survival methods, like venturing out in unsafe conditions in search of food.
A Palestinian Studies Foundation report in August described mothers experiencing miscarriages and premature births due to trauma, grief and the total lack of healthcare.
UNICEF had already warned in January 2024 that conditions in Gaza put pregnant women and their babies at grave risk.
Human Rights Watch reported that, as of January 2025, emergency maternity care was available in only 7 out of 18 hospitals and just one community clinic, down from 20 functioning facilities pre-war.
Experts noted a 300 percent increase in miscarriage rates since the war began.
The health sector in Gaza is enduring its worst crisis in history. Hospitals are overwhelmed, medical supplies were depleted and no international protection exists.
WHO representative Rick Peeperkorn stated that most hospitals operate beyond capacity, with some vital drugs completely unavailable.
Only half of Gaza's hospitals and 38 percent of primary care centers are partially functioning. Stocks of 52 percent of medicines and 68 percent of supplies have run out.
UN experts labeled the destruction of Gazaآ's health care as "medical genocide," accusing the Israeli occupation of deliberately targeting health workers and facilities.
Beyond pregnancy care, women with chronic illnesses, especially the 11,000 cancer patients reported in 2024, suffer immensely in shelters and tents without access to treatment.
All cancer care has halted after 34 hospitals and clinics were destroyed, including specialized centers.
The threat of death by bombing or hunger is compounded by a "menstrual nightmare" faced monthly by hundreds of thousands of women and girls.
With no sanitary pads, clean water or privacy, they resort to using rags, old clothes, or sponge pieces. The absence of safe water means infections are widespread. (end) eng

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