"Here, there is no Women's Day": Displaced Palestinian women in Gaza recount their plight for

Israel's ongoing onslaught on Gaza has caused a severe erosion of women’s rights in the besieged and relentlessly bombed coastal enclave.
Displaced women living in a makeshift camp in the southern city of Rafah face hunger and constant bereavement and say that there will be no celebration of International Women’s Day.
An estimated 1.7 million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip since October 7, representing more than 75% of the enclave's total population, according to UNRWA. Many of them have also been forced to move repeatedly.
And many of its women, such as Iman Zakout, cannot provide medicine for their sick children and just want their lives to go back to normal.
Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has caused a grave humanitarian crisis, including acute shortages of food, water, and medicine after Israel stopped all imports of food, medicine, power, and fuel into Gaza back in October.
At the time of writing, data from Gaza's health ministry indicates that at least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since Oct 7, while another 72,402 have been wounded. A significant proportion of these figures are women.
#gaza #gaza_strip #freepalestine #ceasefirenow #gazaceasefire #gazaceasefirenow #iwd #iwd2024 #internationalwomensday #womensday #palestine #feminism

[@nishadamji9863]

We hear sister, our love and thoughts will remain with you. God cares even if this racist selfish world doesn't

[@MIMAFAITHFRIDA1]

While today, March 8 of 2024, the whole world is commemorating the enormous accomplishments made by many women, 1:30 I cannot celebrate. There is no celebration in Gaza/Palestine. 💔Women and children are dying of starvation. #FreePalestine

[@nathalieanderegg2033]

The New Arab
In Gaza, there are no more 'normal-sized babies': UN official
A UNFPA representative has issued a warning on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza for Palestinian mothers and babies.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a "nightmare" for mothers and babies, with doctors reporting small and sickly newborns, stillbirths and women forced to undergo C-sections without adequate anesthesia, a UN official said Friday.
"I'm personally leaving Gaza this week terrified for the one million women and girls of Gaza... and most especially for the 180 women who are giving birth every single day," Dominic Allen, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for the state of Palestine, said in a video news conference from Jerusalem.
"Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies," Allen said after visiting hospitals still providing maternity services in the north of Gaza, where need is especially great.
"What they do see though, tragically, is more stillborn births... and more neonatal deaths, caused in part by malnutrition, dehydration and complications."
The numbers of complicated deliveries are roughly twice what they were before the war with Israel began -- with mothers stressed, fearful, underfed and exhausted -- and caregivers often lacking necessary supplies.
"We have had reports of insufficient anesthetic being available" for Caesarean sections, "which again is unthinkable."
"Those mothers should be wrapping their arms around their children," he said. "Those children should not be wrapped in a body bag."
Israel has defended its policies and said the UN should send more aid to the war-ravaged territory.
It has pushed back on reports by the UN and NGOs that cumbersome Israeli inspections are blocking food and other essentials.
Allen said Israeli authorities had refused to allow in some UNFPA supply shipments, such as kits for midwives, or had removed supplies like flashlights and solar panels.
"It's a nightmare which is much more than a humanitarian crisis," he said. "It is a crisis of humanity... beyond catastrophic."
What he saw while driving through Gaza, he said, "really broke my heart."
Everyone he passed or spoke to, Allen said, "was gaunt, emaciated, hungry" and exhausted from the daily struggle to survive.
At one military checkpoint, he said, he saw a boy who appeared to be about five years old walking with his hands held high, clearly frightened, as his slightly older sister followed behind, holding a white flag.
The war began October 7 when a surprise attack by Hamas members resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's military campaign has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.

[@kfischek]

Your "fault" was to approve of, permit and support a giant, aggressive military complex to be constructed beneath your children's homes. What did you do to oppose that? Anything?