‘Between survival and devastation’: UN official recounts harrowing tales of Gaza’s women

Pregnant women face risk of miscarriage during arduous treks home on foot after displacement

Palestinian women carry food near a donation point provided by a charity group in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in 2023. AFP

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Days after returning from the most devastated parts of Gaza, the UN Population Fund's Palestine representative said his head still felt "heavy" after hearing of the horrors women have endured since the start of Israel's war on the enclave.

Less than 20 days since a fragile ceasefire began, ending 15 months of deadly Israeli bombardment, Nestor Owomuhangi said many people were unable to pick up the pieces of their lives.

"When travelling from the south [of Gaza] and even before crossing the Netzarim border to the north, you feel like you're entering a world on edge, where life is clinging between survival and devastation," Mr Owomuhangi told The National.

But amid the visible destruction, he said it was the stories of Gaza's women that struck him the most. Women are having miscarriages as they make arduous treks home on foot after being displaced, doctors told the UN.

Women, some of whom have lost spouses, brothers and fathers, have been forced to become the sole breadwinners for their families. Others have to fend for themselves without money, shelter and limited opportunities for survival.

"I asked one woman, at one of the women's spaces we have in Gaza, about her needs," Mr Owomuhangi said. She began by telling him the usual list of tents, blankets, water, food and a general feeling of safety.

"Then she said, 'forget all that. I just want peace. Women in Gaza are seen as resilient and we are happy to be seen this way. But I don't want to be forced to be resilient. I just want to feel like a woman and be taken care of.'"

He said that remark "really stuck with me", as he reflected on the stark difference between his latest trip and the one he made to the Gaza Strip less than four months ago. Before, he said, women cried as they told their stories. "This time, they burst into tears needing about 10 minutes to collect themselves as they recounted the loss and turmoil they endured."

Women and children stand by the rubble of a collapsed building at Al Shati camp for Palestinian refugees, north of Gaza city. AFP

The UN Population Fund estimates that at least 50,000 pregnant women were caught up in the conflict, cut off from maternity care and delivery services. The UN-supported Friends of the Patient Society Hospital in Gaza city is one of the few places where women can receive the care they need.

There doctors told Mr Owomuhangi of the harrowing details of women facing miscarriages as a result of the long and arduous journeys they made on foot, travelling on broken roads in the wind and rain. About 500,000 returned to Gaza's north after the ceasefire deal, many to homes that had been destroyed.

"The sheer misery on the face of the people who are walking back to where their homes were, tired and angry yet hopeful," he added. "They are trying to gather blocks [to rebuild] but they don't have cement because it's not allowed in."

Mr Owomuhangi said the vast amount of rubble in the enclave meant people were struggling to find space to turn their tarpaulin sheets into tents. The UN estimates that 50 million tonnes of rubble needs to be cleared in Gaza.

Israel has blocked the entry of tools of so-called dual use, implements that people need to rebuild some of the 80 per cent of homes that have been destroyed. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 111,670 injured since the war began in Gaza on October 7, 2023.