This dynamic creates what can be described as a triple burden: the loss of male relative support, the weight of additional mouths to feed, and women’s own heightened exposure to hunger and violence. This intensification of responsibilities and heightened insecurity exacerbates pre-existing gender inequalities, including vulnerability to GBV, patterns that have also been documented in other humanitarian settings.81 Yet in Gaza, the deliberate use of starvation, repeated displacement, and mass casualties create particularly acute conditions that reinforce women’s central yet precarious role in sustaining household survival amid famine. HUNGER AND STARVATION COMPOUND GRIEF AND TRAUMA, BUT THEY CANNOT EXTINGUISH HOPES FOR THE FUTURE Women, children, and humanitarian workers alike describe a collective psychological collapse under the weight of siege, bombardment, grief, and hunger. Women described the anguish of hearing their children cry from hunger, the humiliation of returning empty-handed from aid lines, and the despair of boiling leaves or scraps to soothe starving families. For many, the act of self-rationing, starving themselves to feed children, has become both a survival strategy and a source of psychological torment. Such experiences deepen anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness, eroding mental health in ways that cannot be separated from nutritional deprivation. Credit: SOH Testimonies are not isolated cries; they are evidence of an environment where survival itself has been rendered precarious, and dignity deliberately denied. Evidence from other famines demonstrates that such effects persist across generations, entrenching cycles of poverty, trauma, and inequality.8283 In Gaza, where health systems are largely destroyed, the capacity to mitigate these impacts is nearly nonexistent, compounding the urgency of gender-responsive interventions that integrate mental health and psychosocial support. Recent research highlights the need for culturally embedded responses that enable people in Gaza to draw strength from shared narratives and mutual support.84 Honoring the stories and lived experiences of genocide survivors in Gaza is not only central to a dignified humanitarian response, but also essential to ensuring accountability and to preventing such atrocities from occurring in the future. A mother who lost her 12-year-old daughter to a bombing at a school shelter shared: “But what I hope for is at least a future where my remaining children can grow up in safety, continue their education, and live with dignity. We have lost everything, including our pride. Hunger and humiliation have turned us into beggars for survival. Still, I hold on to the hope that someday, we will live again, free from fear, from hunger, and from this endless grief.” A woman who lost her 15-year-old son had similar hopes for the future: “My dreams are not complicated. I want my children to be safe, to eat until they are full, to return to their studies, and to grow up with dignity. I want no mother to live what I lived, standing powerless while her child died in front of her. Above all, I want peace, food, and shelter, so that our lives can be human again.” 24