Palestinian Women and Children: Weapons of War in Israel’s Genocide |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
Palestinian Women and Children: Weapons of War in Israel’s Genocide
In the context of the genocide suffered by the Palestinian people, the bodies of women and girls are used as weapons of war by Israel, with the complicity of the United States. They endure multiple forms of violence: intimidation, threats, physical assaults, displacement, dispossession, forced nudity, groping, rape, mutilation, and murder, among others.
More than 22,000 women and 16,000 girls have been killed in Gaza in the context of the genocide. This means that 47 women and girls die every day, according to the UN Women report *The Cost of War in Gaza for Women and Girls* (2026, April 17)[2], which means that two women and girls die every hour. This constitutes barbarism—or, rather, killing them is a strategy within the context of genocide.
They are murdered, among other reasons, to ensure that future generations are not born. That is to say, women—conceived as givers of life—are deprived of their own existence so that they do not carry future Palestinian generations in their wombs. Thus, from their genocidal conception, by killing women, they “ensure” the extinction of the offspring.
But if women have already given birth, if they are already mothers, their daughters and sons are mutilated or murdered before their eyes or in their presence. There are numerous accounts of this. One of them is the case of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, a Palestinian pediatrician, who lost nine of her ten children in May 2025: while she and her husband were treating patients who were victims of the genocide, their home was bombed.
Losing any family member is painful, but losing a son or daughter amounts to “death in life.” Since October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 21,289 children have died (UNICEF, 2026)[3], meaning that one-third of the deaths have been of minors. Or to put it another way, 25 children have been killed every day—one every hour. The questions that arise: First, why kill the civilian population; second, why kill children. The answer, in addition to devastating the general population and demonstrating the barbarity of which they are capable, centers on cutting short the future and exterminating the Palestinian people. In addition to the deaths, there are the children who have been maimed, or the thousands who may be trapped under the rubble. In this regard, UNICEF documented that at least “64,000 children in the Gaza Strip, including at least 1,000 infants,” had been killed, died, or were maimed (UNICEF, 2025, October 8)[4].
Added to this is the reality of watching children die of starvation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “In July [2025] alone, there were more than 12,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition. This is the highest figure ever recorded, representing a sixfold increase since the beginning of the year” (WHO, 2025, August 22)[5]. Furthermore, based on its report on the........