In any conflict, the worst affected are women and children and the ongoing violence in Gaza is the latest example. According to UN Women estimates, the hostilities have led to thousands of women and children being both killed and displaced from their homes, with more likely displacements and deaths as the deadly violence continues.
Women in this situation face many challenges, among them access to food and medicine and safety from gender-based violence. Many of the women in Gaza have led a sheltered life, due to customs and tradition and the frequent outbreaks of violence, such that their ability to flee and survive has been eroded over the years. Those displaced most often have no access to financial support, shelter, water and food, and, of course, little protection from more violence.
Lucy Nusseibeh, an academic and activist with the NGO Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy who lives in Jerusalem says, “I don’t believe in military security, we need human security. We are Stateless people. Today, water is the difference between death and life in Gaza which is why Israel is attacking water tankers. We need a whole ceasefire, not the kind of militarised masculinity that we see today.”
Most women in Gaza report feelings of hopelessness, terror, depression and anxiety. In the current situation, women do not even have time to grieve the loss of their children or husbands leaving them with severe emotional traumas. Meenakshi Gopinath, director, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace, New Delhi, and chair, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, says, “Women and children constitute a sizable majority of those adversely impacted during conflict. Their lives and security in peril, their personal safety and dignity under siege have become markers of the global landscapes of conflict. Whether in camps or perpetually on the move caring for children and families, they remain vulnerable to multiple levels of gender-based and sexual violence, trafficking, the loss of livelihoods, and extreme disruptions in their social and familial structures… But in what we see of a conflict of genocidal proportions, which has become a graveyard of children and aborting pregnant women, the conscience of the world cannot just settle for the palliatives of normative exhortations of the UN. The trauma of this utter sense of despair and abandonment alongside brazen impunity accorded by international strategic realpolitik will leave its scars on the collective psyche for generations to come.”
Many of the women survivors now have to head households and provide for their children with little skills or means to do so leading to heightened risks of human trafficking, gender violence and sexual exploitation. The plight of elderly women and those with disabilities is particularly worrying in a region where most of the infrastructure has been destroyed and shelters makeshift at best.
Mark Sofer, former deputy director general of Israel’s foreign ministry and former ambassador to India, says, “The suffering of any uninvolved civilian is always tragic… Israel will continue to do its utmost to prevent collateral damage, especially of women and children in a war which it did not initiate or want… There is absolutely no room for moral equivalence.”
While the debate continues over who is most at fault, Hamas or the Israel Defence Forces, women and children are at heightened risk of myriad forms of violence and marginalisation. The only glimmer of hope, says Nusseibeh, is that after this dreadful violence, a real peace may come about with the establishment of a Palestinian State. That seems unlikely for the moment, but certainly, there should be a much greater international effort to protect Gaza’s women and children, who are the most vulnerable in this conflict.
The views expressed are personal
Lalita Panicker leads the opinion section at Hindustan Times. Over a 33-year career, she has specialised in gender issues, reproductive health, child rights, politics and social engineering. ...view detail
In Gaza war, women and children suffer most
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18.11.2023
In any conflict, the worst affected are women and children and the ongoing violence in Gaza is the latest example. According to UN Women estimates, the hostilities have led to thousands of women and children being both killed and displaced from their homes, with more likely displacements and deaths as the deadly violence continues.
Women in this situation face many challenges, among them access to food and medicine and safety from gender-based violence. Many of the women in Gaza have led a sheltered life, due to customs and tradition and the frequent outbreaks of violence, such that their ability to flee and survive has been eroded over the years. Those displaced most often have no access to financial support, shelter, water and food, and, of course, little protection from more violence.
Lucy Nusseibeh, an academic and activist with the NGO Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy who lives in Jerusalem says, “I don’t believe in military security, we need human security. We are Stateless people. Today,........
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