For Gaza’s women, the difficulties of life in the territory’s sprawling tent camps are compounded by the daily humiliation of never having privacy.
Women displaced from their homes by ongoing Israeli bombing struggle to dress modestly as they are crammed into tents with extended family members, including men, and with strangers just feet away in neighboring tents.
Alaa Hamami solved the problem of modesty by constantly wearing her prayer shawl, a cloth that covers her head and upper body.
“Our whole lives have become garments of prayer, even to the market where we wear them,” said the young mother of three. “The dignity is no longer there.”
Normally, she only wore the shawl during her daily Muslim prayers. But with so many men around, she keeps it on all the time, even when she sleeps — just in case an Israeli attack hits nearby in the night and she has to flee quickly, she said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has driven more than 90 percent of its 2.3 million residents from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of people now live in squalid tent camps, crowded together over large areas – where sewage flows into the streets and it is difficult to obtain food and water. ‘water.
Access to toilets and hygiene products is also limited, and many women now cut up sheets or old clothes to use as sanitary napkins.
Wafaa Nasrallah, a displaced mother of two, says life in the camps makes even the simplest needs difficult and she cannot afford sanitary napkins. She tried using scraps of cloth and even diapers, but their price also increased.
For his toilet, Nasrallah uses a hole in the ground, surrounded by covers supported by sticks.
These makeshift toilets also have to be shared with dozens of other people in the camps.
As winter sets in, challenges increase and women constantly feel exposed. Many say they have to choose between buying towels and buying food and water.
The United Nations says more than 690,000 women and girls in Gaza need menstrual hygiene products, as well as clean water and toilets, as stocks of hygiene kits are exhausted and prices are exorbitant.
But aid workers have been unable to meet demand as supplies pile up at border crossings and Israel continues to block the entry of aid and supplies into the besieged and battered Gaza Strip.