Israel’s war in Gaza challenges principle of protecting women

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) said in a report on February 16 that the Israeli war on women and girls in Gaza challenges the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

CEDAW voiced its concerns “about the plight of the more than one million Palestinian women and girls who have been forcibly displaced multiple times.” It also called upon Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling of provisional measures to prevent genocidal acts against the Palestinians.

“The clock is ticking fast towards famine and an outbreak of epidemics. The lives and health, physical and mental, of the women and girls of Gaza are severely compromised,” the report added.

For example, a woman refused to put her child, who was killed by Israeli bombing in central Gaza, in a morgue and insisted on hugging him, while others were trying to convince her to leave him, according to video footage published on Palestinian journalist Hani El Shaer’s Telegram channel on February 17.

Another video went viral showing paramedics recovering the bodies of a pregnant woman and another lady. On February 18, another video shared by journalist Saleh Aljafarawi showed that a newborn infant was rescued from an Israeli bombing.

الحمدلله ااطفل ما زال على قيد الحياة ♥ pic.twitter.com/BLmWHsdQ7i

— صالح الجعفراوي - Saleh Aljafarawi (@salehaljafarawi) February 17, 2024

The Palestinian Ministry of Health’s branch in the Gaza Strip said on February 17 that 12,660 children have been killed by Israel since October 7, 2023. Meanwhile, 8,570 women have been martyred. Furthermore, 31 hospitals and 53 health centers have gone out of service completely, while 152 health institutions have been partially bombed by Israel.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 5,500 women are supposed to deliver their babies next month, with 180 women in labor every day, as the number of pregnant women has been estimated at 50,000 as of November 1, 2023. It added that 840 women are vulnerable to “pregnancy- or birth-related complications.”

A total of 7,729 children have been buried by their mothers in the Gaza Strip over the past four months of Israel’s war on the besieged enclave, while 5,500 women are expected to deliver their babies next month in fear amid the absence of safety and basic health services.

“The bombardments, damaged or non-functioning health facilities, massive levels of displacement, collapsing water and electricity supplies as well as restricted access to food and medicines, are severely disrupting maternal, newborn, and child health services,” said WHO, UNFPA, UNRWA, and UNICEF in a joint statement on November 3, 2023.