Palestinian women suffer from a lack of privacy in the displacement centers in the besieged southern Gaza Strip, amid the harsh conditions they face to provide the minimum necessities of life.
Displacement centers are usually schools and institutions of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which suffer from severe overcrowding that exceeds their capacity due to the displacement of residents there from the north and south of the Gaza Strip, which prevents women from being able to use bathrooms, or sleep alone in private rooms.
The continued closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing also prevented the entry of women’s health supplies, which Palestinian women describe as “disastrous,” which coincides with the absence of water necessary for hygiene, bathing, and even drinking.
In light of this war, women also perform hard work that is not compatible with their physical nature, such as chopping firewood to cook food, and sitting in front of fires that emit smoke from burning wood and leaves for long hours in the open.
Psychological stress
All of this happens in light of the psychological pressures Palestinian women suffer from due to the catastrophic effects of this war, starting with leaving their homes, through losing the necessities of life, and ending with the loss of members of their families and children.
According to the government media office in Gaza, 1.8 million displaced Palestinians are now living an extremely difficult life in hundreds of displacement and shelter centers.
The office said in a statement published last Saturday, “These large numbers of displaced people need a radical solution to end their continuing suffering, and they all need urgent aid and supplies that international institutions must provide immediately.”
Last November 20, Reem Al Salem, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said in a statement that Palestinian women have been subjected, for decades, to a multi-layered attack of horrific and systematic discrimination and violence due to the Israeli occupation, and denial of the right to self-determination.
She added, “The attack on the dignity and rights of Palestinian women has taken on new and terrifying dimensions” since last October 7, the date of the start of the devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, as thousands of them became victims of the “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide that are unfolding.”
Al-Salem touched on “the difficult conditions facing pregnant women in Gaza, with the possibility of giving birth without anesthesia, surgical intervention, or health precautions.”
In addition, estimates have deprived “more than 690,000 menstruating women and girls of limited access to menstrual hygiene products,” according to the United Nations Population Fund.
Missing privacy
In one of the displacement centers in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, women stand in line waiting for their turn to enter the bathrooms.
Souad Muqbel (43 years old), who was displaced from northwest Gaza City, shouted angrily, “Even entering the bathrooms now requires a queue!! Isn’t what happened to us in Gaza enough? Must we bear the insult to our dignity here as well!”
She added, “As women, we no longer have any kind of privacy. We are now on the streets, in full view of everyone.”
She explained that their suffering is worsening daily in light of the severe overcrowding inside the shelter centers, the severe water shortage, and the running out of personal hygiene supplies.
She added with extreme embarrassment, “At the beginning of the displacement, I did not accept this situation, and I was so embarrassed that it prevented me from entering the bathroom for two days, to the extent that it caused severe pain in the abdomen and kidneys.”
It turns out that she is trying to adapt to the current situation, despite its difficulty due to the loss of privacy. She says, “I did not expect things to reach this point in the worst case scenario, living in a shelter center, using public bathrooms, and much more.”
Cleanliness crisis
Displaced person Nisreen Masoud (35 years old) says that displaced women face many crises, “and we face a real health crisis inside the shelter centers due to the lack of hygiene and health supplies for women.”
Masoud explains that the lack of water also causes a hygiene crisis, which leads to many of them contracting gynecological diseases, as well as the spread of infectious diseases.
According to a statement by the government media center in Gaza, 355,000 cases among 1.8 million displaced people inside displacement centers were documented with infectious diseases.
Nisreen pointed out that the lack of privacy for women in shelter centers creates in them “a feeling of fear and inability to act freely.”
She reported that displaced women felt “extreme embarrassment and restriction in public places, while the difficult living conditions – in light of the lack of sources of income and the depletion of goods in the markets – forced them to economize on using any materials or supplies for fear of losing them if the war lasted for a long time.”
With the beginning of the war on October 7, the Israeli authorities announced the closure of the crossings leading to Gaza through Israel, but after UN and international pressure, they allowed very limited humanitarian aid to enter through the Egyptian Rafah crossing, which is primarily intended for travelers.
Since the outbreak of the devastating war on the Gaza Strip, Israel has cut off supplies of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel to the residents of Gaza, who – according to some estimates – are about 2.3 million Palestinians who are already suffering from extremely deteriorating conditions as a result of an ongoing siege for 17 years.
Hard work
On agricultural land in the city of Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, displaced person Suad Abu Hasira (43 years old) sits in front of a clay oven, preparing bread for about 35 members of her family and relatives who were displaced from Gaza City due to the violent raids and Israeli ground attack.
Souad – with the help of a group of girls who looked exhausted – makes a great effort to light the fire with wood, even though it is a normal task for men.
This requires force in cutting wood in proportion to the size of the furnace, and continuous insertion of it so that the level of the fire does not decrease, and its smoke causes respiratory diseases.
This displaced woman bakes about 100 loaves of bread on a daily basis to feed this large number of displaced people. She says, “Life here is very difficult and the situation is unbearable, but we are forced to endure it and swallow the pain and bitterness, until we return to our homes.”
Souad, whose hands showed signs of burns and wounds, added, “I was the decision-maker in my home before displacement, in preparing and preparing whatever food I wanted, but today I am not the decision-maker. Rather, I implement what the owners of the land in which we currently reside decide.”
She asked in a cracking voice, “When will this war end and we will return to our homes again? Enough with the humiliation and humiliation. By God, we are tired.”
Since 80 days of the devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has left – until the latest toll published on Sunday – 20,424 martyrs and 54,36 wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to massive destruction of infrastructure and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the United Nations.