Image: Fullah Ziyad Khalil Arafat has been displaced many times. Every time she hears she has to move again, she feels despair in her bones. The mother of five also takes care of her husband’s aging parents. “If we want to move from one place to another, we need money for transport,” she says. “The cost of a tent is (about 500 ILS – more than USD 100) every month. From where would we get that?” Photo: UN Women
Famine was declared in Gaza City on 22 August 2025 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis – a first for the Middle East region. Mothers cannot feed their newborns; girls go to sleep hungry; families are burying children who are starving to death; and aid workers themselves are going without food.
Nearly a quarter of a million women and girls in Gaza are starving, many of them dying. Over half a million more are facing extreme hunger and acute malnutrition. Women, the caregivers , line up for hours, risking their lives for a loaf of bread, a bucket of water, or a bag of flour.
Hygiene is another daily indignity. With sanitary pads largely unavailable or unaffordable, and no privacy, nearly 700,000 women and girls of reproductive age struggle to manage menstruation, often in overcrowded or unsafe facilities.
Last year, 7 in 10 women dying in conflict globally were killed in Gaza. Life expectancy has been reduced by 30 years. Homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, and even UN shelters have all been struck. Since October 2023, when the conflict started, more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed and 78,518 injured.
With over 1 million women and girls displaced, many multiple times, safety has become an illusion. Each move has meant searching for a small piece of land, often at unbearable rental costs, and many families end up building makeshift tents.
UN Women has been supporting women-led organizations in the State of Palestine since 1997. Since October 2023, at least 89 per cent of women-led organizations in Gaza have suffered significant damages. Offices have been destroyed, aid workers have been killed, and only one gender-based violence shelter remains operational in Gaza City – and they too may relocate soon.
This month, UN Women’s long-term partner and one of the leading women’s organization in Gaza, Association for Women and Child Protection (AISHA), was hit by an Israeli airstrike. The attack tragically claimed the lives of three people, including a staff member of AISHA, a child, and a pregnant woman who was seeking services, and resulted in extensive damage to AISHA’s premises.
Nearly half a million girls need psychosocial support in Gaza. The psychological toll on women in Gaza is profound – some 239,000 women and girls are experiencing mental disorders.