Painful Silence

Palestinian women have had to suffer the adverse impacts of war, while living within a deeply conservative and patriarchal society

- Pratiti Roy

AS of November 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that around 15,000 people had been killed in the war with Israel and the death toll continues to rise. According to Care International, a global humanitarian agency, a staggering 70 per cent of the people killed in Gaza are women and children. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is facing a severe lack of funds and facilities as around 250,000 internally-displaced persons are seeking shelter. According to estimates by UN Women, 50,000 women in Gaza are pregnant, and about 5,000 women are scheduled to give birth in December. Needless to say, the current war between Israel and Palestine has disregarded basic humanitarian needs and the rights of innocent civilians.

Despite decades of efforts by world leaders and organisa­tions to broker peace between the two countries, the Israel-Palestine conflict has only grown more violent and destructive. With no end in sight to the war, innocent nationals on both sides are bearing the brunt of it. However, the current loss and destruction faced by Palestinians is incomparable, and the devastation that the war has caused to the psyche and lives of the most vulnerable of its citizens—women, children and the elderly—is irreversible. The impact of the war has been particularly brutal on Palestinian women, who continue their resistance against the settlers, while losing their sons and daughters, among other loved ones.