FINDINGS Findings are organized by four key themes that arose from primary data, which show that women and girls are: 1. Disproportionately at risk of hunger and starvation; 2. Excluded from current food distribution systems; 3. Experiencing intersectional risks and vulnerabilities; and 4. Facing long-term physical and mental health impacts. WOMEN AND GIRLS FACE A DISPROPORTIONATE RISK OF HUNGER AND STARVATION Today, nearly every resident of Gaza faces acute food insecurity, yet women and girls experience unique risks of hunger and starvation.22 Gaza’s food insecurity was already gender-skewed even before the war; in 2018, UN Women determined that one-third of female-headed households were food insecure, compared to one-fourth of male-headed households.23 In 2024, surveys found that 7 in 10 women had lost weight in the past month, with most experiencing frequent dizziness from not eating, and many reporting that they reduced their food intake to one small meal a day or less.24 By June 2024, at least 557,000 women in Gaza were classified as severely food insecure and up to 100,000 women and children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.25 Now, over one million women and girls are facing mass starvation.26 KIIs underscore how macro-level trends translate into gendered starvation risks. Frontline clinicians describe daily presentations of syncope, severe weight loss, and micronutrient deficiency among women who report skipping food for 48 to 72 hours so children can eat. A frontline health worker noted, “Every week we treat dozens of women who collapse from not eating for two or three days after waiting hours at aid lines,” and another added, “Every case I see is linked to hunger; mothers collapse in queues, faint in front of their children.” Another health worker reported: “In the last two months alone we documented 82 cases (of malnutrition), 59 of them women and girls; every woman screened showed anemia and malnutrition.” As in many cultural contexts, women in Gaza often eat “the least and last”, and in scarcity many women self-ration to ensure children and others get food first.27 One frontline worker noted: “We give fortified biscuits and supplements, but mothers hand them to their children and eat nothing themselves.” Almost all women interviewed reflected on their systematic self-rationing and last-in-line consumption. A widow explained: “I starve myself so my children can eat. At aid centers women endure insults, humiliation, and fear for their daughters’ safety in crowded lines. This is what survival has become.” Several women described putting children to bed early to avoid hearing them cry from hunger or boiling meager scraps like vegetable peels into thin soups. As one displaced mother in Rafah said: “We boil leaves and give the soup to the children. I tell them stories so they forget their hunger. I myself don’t eat for days.” Mothers discussed breastfeeding while starving themselves and older sisters went without food so their younger siblings could eat at least once a day. One woman explained, “My body grows weaker every day as I try to feed my children who cry for food,” and a displaced mother in Southern Gaza put simply, “We mothers eat less so that our children can have one more bite.” 11