DISCUSSION Drawing on secondary data, KIIs, and testimonies from women, this report describes in detail the ways in which women and girls are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity and famine in Gaza. The research also illustrates how aid blockades and militarized food distribution mechanisms exclude women and girls. Israel’s suppression of a professional humanitarian response, coupled with mass casualties and continuous forced displacement, exacerbates pre-existing gender inequalities in Gaza and has resulted in a psychological collapse that may last for generations. The trajectory from food insecurity to famine was not unforeseen; restrictions on humanitarian access, the dismantling of agricultural and health systems, and the obstruction of essential goods have created conditions where famine became inevitable. Within this crisis, women and girls have carried disproportionate burdens: widows excluded from aid lines, mothers collapsing from hunger while feeding their children, adolescent girls forced into early marriage, and pregnant women giving birth without skilled care, medicine, or even light. Women with disabilities and chronic illnesses have been pushed to the very margins of survival, at the intersection of famine, vulnerability, and exclusion. SYSTEMATIC VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW ARE HARMING WOMEN AND CHILDREN THE MOST​​ The gendered effects of food insecurity and famine in Gaza must be understood within their structural and political context. International humanitarian law is unambiguous: starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid is a war crime.71 Famine has not arisen from environmental shocks but from deliberate policies of siege, blockade, and systematic restrictions on humanitarian access. The militarization of food distribution through heavily controlled aid hubs has further undermined women’s ability to safely access assistance. Testimonies from women describe “death traps” and “graveyards” where women and children are killed or assaulted while seeking food. Women’s exposure to hunger, humiliation, and violence at aid distribution sites illustrates how structural violence intersects with gender inequality. Far from being incidental, these experiences reflect the political weaponization of hunger. Findings align with international experts who have determined that Israel’s policies of starvation are an act of genocide.727374 A 2024 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food concluded that “Israel has engaged in an intentional starvation campaign against the Palestinian people which evidences genocide and extermination”75 and, in June 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls stated that Israel’s targeting of Palestinian women and girls constitutes a “femi-genocide.”76 GENDER-RESPONSIVE AID REQUIRES A PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY-LED HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE Humanitarian actors understand what gender-responsive food aid requires. Within weeks of the war’s start, UN Women and WFP launched a gender-responsive food distribution initiative to target womenheaded households. Thanks to gender-disaggregated data, they identified 14,716 women-headed families, or about one-third of all female-headed households, to receive priority food parcels77. This was a crucial step, as UN Women noted: “Everybody was hungry… it was even more difficult to reach the hardto-reach, such as women-headed households.” By giving these households direct access to rations, the humanitarian community sought to ensure women and children did not starve in the shadows. 22