KEY FINDINGS
1. Women and girls are disproportionately at risk of hunger and starvation.
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Women in Gaza systematically self-ration food consumption to ensure that their children and
younger family members can eat.
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Clinicians in Gaza report daily presentations of syncope, severe weight loss, and micronutrient
deficiency among women.
2. Current food distribution systems systematically exclude women and girls.
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Women without male relatives, elderly women, and those caring for children are especially
excluded from aid access, leaving entire households without food.
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Women walk long distances, wait in long lines, and still come back from food distribution points
empty-handed.
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At militarized food distribution points, women are groped, verbally harassed, pushed to the
ground in stampedes, and shot at.
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Many women no longer attempt to access food distributions, describing them as “death traps”
and “graveyards”.
3. Women and girls are experiencing intersectional risks and vulnerabilities.
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Repeated displacement into unsafe and overcrowded shelters results in additional challenges
for women to safely obtain, store, and prepare food.
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Due to a rise in female-headed households, women are increasingly solely responsible for
feeding their families, including extended family members.
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Pregnant women face higher odds of complications, miscarriages, and stillbirths; infants born to
malnourished women are at risk of severe health complications.
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Obstacles for women and girls with disabilities to obtain food are magnified by Israel’s
restrictions on assistive devices and parts.
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Over 200,000 adolescent girls in Gaza are facing critical food insecurity, with many experiencing
acute malnutrition, anemia, and heightened protection risks, including child marriage.
4. Women and girls face severe long-term physical and mental health impacts.
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GBV in Gaza is taking many forms, including coercion, harassment, and transactional sex for
survival. Women and girls are subjected to verbal abuse, unwanted touching, and transactional
exploitation when trying to access food.
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Women in Gaza have shown remarkable resilience through repeated crises, but they are being
pushed beyond the limits of endurance.
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The intersection of grief, hunger, and motherhood emerged repeatedly in women’s accounts,
with children’s trauma multiplying the psychological burden of hunger and starvation.
IMPLICATIONS
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 for women.
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