In July 2024, WFP, after realizing that many women could not safely access bread distributions, worked with local bakeries to open dedicated women-only bread lines. WFP also launched mobile distribution teams to deliver aid closer to where displaced women shelter to ensure access for all women, with special considerations for elderly women, women with disabilities, and women with children. Female staff and volunteers were deployed in greater numbers in distribution sites to ensure women felt safer and could express their needs.78 Women’s testimonies and KIIs confirm these measures made a difference; mothers described women-only bread lines as the first time they could “stand without fear of being crushed,” while frontline staff observed that deploying female distributors encouraged women to voice concerns. Credit: SOH Most of these initiatives have been discontinued in the wake of stricter blockades and militarized food distribution. Meanwhile, women-led Palestinian organizations have continued to provide critical support with wide outreach to communities, enabling them to reach the most vulnerable and excluded groups of women.79 Yet women-led organizations (WLOs) cannot be expected to operate under impossible conditions, including dramatically insufficient levels of funding. Cuts to foreign aid have already pushed many women’s organizations in humanitarian crises worldwide to the brink of collapse.80 In Gaza, chronic underfunding threatens not only the immediate delivery of lifesaving support, but also women’s long-term participation and leadership in recovery and peacebuilding. Testimonies highlight women’s resilience and creativity in sustaining families, yet these skills and expertise are seldom recognized by formal systems. Placing Palestinian women at the center of response planning and implementation is a matter of equity and a prerequisite for effective aid delivery. THE SCALE OF MASS CASUALTY AND FORCED DISPLACEMENT IN GAZA CREATES A TRIPLE BURDEN FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS The deaths of male relatives, including husbands, brothers, and sons, have eliminated vital sources of both emotional and material support for women and girls in Gaza. Widows and surviving women often find themselves as sole heads of households, suddenly responsible for providing for their families while navigating devastated livelihoods. At the same time, repeated forced displacement has stripped women and girls of stability, assets, and community networks. Women’s testimonies highlight the immense challenge of moving between overcrowded shelters and temporary sites, where they must secure food, water, and protection under conditions of extreme scarcity and insecurity. Each relocation not only heightens physical danger but also increases the number of dependents women must care for, as orphaned children and elderly relatives are folded into already overstretched households. 23