'I'm living in Gaza as it's being bombed - we've forgotten the meaning of safety'

Displaced and distraught, women in Gaza are searching for food and safety - neither are to be found easily. In their efforts to find sustenance amidst the rubble, women in Gaza are facing yet another threat and a terrible inevitability of war - sexual violence.

The Women’s Affairs Centre in Gaza claim that sexual violence is occurring as starving women seek food in Palestine, amid reports of sexual assaults of women as they queue for aid distribution have been on the rise.

These same women, I’m told, are being turned away from pick-up points for not holding identification, as their documents have been left behind in their homes that have been reduced to rubble. Amal Syam, the General Director for Women Affairs Centre, and Reham Al-Jarrah, the centre’s Project Coordinator, shared their testimonies of supporting women through hunger and disease in Gaza while also struggling to survive themselves.

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The interview has been a long time in the making. I have been in contact with numerous women in Gaza for months. Some ceased contact completely. I presumed the worst, that they had not survived what Amnesty International and the United Nations are calling the genocide in Gaza.

A UN Women report on Gaza from June 2024 stated that 89% of women's organisations have had their buildings damaged, with over a third experiencing complete destruction. I haven’t stopped thinking of these women for months: the ones who help others despite the destruction. And then an email dropped into my inbox from the Women’s Affairs Centre in Gaza.

'I was forced to leave my home'

Our interview was repeatedly disrupted by, what they tell me is, IDF shellings - even through the video call the noise was deafening and frightening. They ducked during these moments. At one point, the call cuts out after a loud noise. When they return, Amal and Reham apologise for the noise. So constant are these horrors, yet their resistance and determination is palpable.

Amal tells me that she has not seen her family since the war began. In September 2023, her husband went to Egypt to bring their daughter to get settled into university. One son left shortly before the war began, while another son, who she hasn’t seen in months, is working as a doctor in the region. “So I am alone and my family fragmented,” she says. “I feel alone without [them]. I sleep alone, stay alone.”

Displaced from her home, which she fled from with just the dress she was wearing and another one as a spare. She adds: “Now I change one and wash one and change and wear one. So this is my life.” Now she lives in the Women’s Affairs Centre office building. She says: “I was forced to leave my home three months ago” after evacuation orders told her to leave. Her home is now destroyed.

Each day, she does everything within her power to support Gazan women. Amal says that despite the hardship, “still you stand up and still work to provide services.” Amal explains that, “the majority of [the Women’s Advice Centre] staff live in tents in shelters”, where water and food are scarce.

'No one in Gaza eats twice a day'

She tells me, “no one in Gaza eats twice a day” and describes herself as one of the “lucky ones who have one meal during 24 hours”. Every day at 5pm, she eats her one meal for that day: a small loaf of bread with a can of beans. She says: “I don't wish for you to have it or to try it.”

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Seeking food is a dangerous necessity in Gaza, as stampedes at distribution sites have seen people trampled to death. Israel have been accused of blocking aid from entering Gaza, as the BBC reported on July 24 that the UN has 6,000 trucks of aid ready to cross the border into Gaza if only Israel would let them.

“Women and girls in Gaza are facing the impossible choice of starving to death at their shelters, or venturing out in search of food and water at the extreme risk of being killed. Their children are starving to death before their eyes. This is horrific, unconscionable and unacceptable. It is inhumane,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. UN Women reports that in Gaza “women are boiling discarded food scraps to feed their children, and risking being killed when searching for food and water.”

'Children are starving to death before their eyes'

This is echoed in what the Women’s Affairs Centre tells me, as starving women are seeking support from the WAC, for psychosocial and for depression support. Amal says that women are arriving at the center, with “their sons crying… and without food. So we cannot say anything for these women because there is no food for us.” Women are collapsing with hunger as they wait for help from the women’s organisation.

I’m told of a widow who has children, who are all going without anything to eat. Amal says: “[This woman] went to the humanitarian distribution point 15 times without bringing anything [back]… We cannot do anything for this woman. Now all our [food] stores are empty. We didn't have anything to distribute for these women, not even dignity kits.”

'Women cut clothes into strips' to use as a pad

Dignity kits contain items such as underwear, combs, soap and menstrual products. When the WAC had supplies, they went to camps and shelters to distribute to women in need. It is reported that there are 700,000 people of menstruating age in Gaza, yet Amal tells me that sanitary pads and hygiene products are scarce.

If a person is lucky enough to find a sanitary napkin, they are “really expensive” to buy. With some families having numerous women and girls, they simply cannot afford to find and pay for these products. Instead, women are “cut[ting] the clothes” into strips to use as a pad, yet “sometimes there is nothing” to use.

In the shelters and camps, there is little access to water and toilet facilities, Amal tells me, which is causing infections. She adds: “If you have a period that means you need to go to the toilet a lot … and many times that means you will stand all day to allow you to enter the toilet.” Diarrhoea and public lice have spread across the shelters, as these women aren’t able to access soap and water, and so “most of them eat and don't wash their hands.”

'We forget the meaning of safety'

The writing is on the wall. Now is not the time for equivocating, as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in May that Israel’s army would wipe out what is left of Gaza. “No more raids and going in and out, but conquering, cleansing and remaining until Hamas is destroyed,” Smotrich said. “We are destroying what is still left of the Strip.” Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on August 5 that a decision had been made for the entire occupation of the Gaza Strip.

These calls will lead to future deaths in Gaza. At time of writing, Al Jazeera reported that 61,158 people have been killed and 151,442 wounded in Gaza since October 2023. Safety is not an option in Gaza. Reham says: “During this meeting, you've heard the sound of the IDF… there's no [being] ‘safe’ here. We turn around [and] there's bombing… Not a single moment passes without having someone killed, someone bombed… We forget the meaning of safety.”

The Women’s Affair Centre will carry on despite these challenges, and are calling on the international community and UK citizens to continue taking to the streets in support of Palestine. Amal said: “This is the moment for the world to stand and support us”.

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