Palestine
Working with local Women’s Rights Organisations to serve marginalised women who face violence, food insecurity and unemployment in the region.
Palestine
Our work in Palestine
This war continues to bring unimaginable suffering for women and children. Two mothers are killed every hour in Gaza. Two-thirds of the tens of thousands of people killed are women and children. Nearly a million more have been forcibly displaced and left to live amongst the rubble without safe shelter or enough food or clean water to survive. For the sick and injured, for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, there is virtually no medical help left.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has spanned decades, but the attacks by Hamas on 7th October 2023 and the subsequent bombardment and siege of Gaza by Israel have led to a new and deadly chapter in this war.
Women for Women International unequivocally condemns the use of rape, torture and the abduction of civilians as crimes against humanity, no matter what side of any conflict.
Our hearts go out to the survivors and the families of the victims who are going through unbearable suffering and trauma.
59%
of women in the West Bank and Gaza reported suffering at least one form of gender-based violence by their husbands, according to UNFPA.
31%
of households in the West Bank including East Jerusalem and 19% in Gaza have reported concerns about the safety and security of girls, according to UN-OCHA Protection of Civilians report.
11.5%
of the girls in registered marriages in 2021 were under the age of 18 years old, reports Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Adapting to meet the urgent needs of women in Gaza
To address the urgent humanitarian needs of women in Gaza, we are working with Wefaq Society for Women and Child Care, a local women’s organisation that has managed to remain operational, even in this deadly and unstable environment. Through them, we are providing:
- Hot meals from community kitchens
- Winter clothes and shoes
- Blankets and mattresses
- Hygiene kits and other essential items like menstrual supplies, milk, diapers for babies and food vouchers
- Hotlines for trauma-informed counselling
Since 1996, Wefaq has been serving women, children and youth survivors of violence with psychological, fiscal, legal and health assistance. When the war began, they shifted to emergency humanitarian response for displaced families from east of the Rafah Governorate and the northern Gaza Strip to the shelters in the southern Gaza Strip.
Thousands of women and children have already been given warm clothing, hygiene kits, food, and water, but there are thousands more in desperate need.
Women living in tent shelters need blankets and mattresses, children need warm clothes and shoes as they face harsh winter weather and families need enough food and clean water to survive.
As a nonpartisan organisation committed to serving the most marginalised women affected by war and conflict, we are now providing essential aid throughout the region – not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and Israel.
Supporting women in the West Bank
In the West Bank, we have already been working with five women's rights organisations (Family Defence Society, Sawa – Together Today and Tomorrow, Jerusalem Centre for Women, Women Activities Association and Askar Women's Centre) since 2022 to support women who face violence, food insecurity and unemployment in an area of prolonged conflict. Since 7th October 2023, with increasing violence, raids and restrictions to people’s movements, women and their families have limited access to health and medical facilities, clean water and essential food items. So, we’ve pivoted to meet their urgent needs by providing food vouchers, trauma-informed counselling via hotlines, hygiene kits, and other essential items like menstrual supplies, milk and diapers for babies.
Due to the ongoing closures, my husband is unable to work, and the economic situation is dire. With children to care for, I'm uncertain about the future and when this crisis will come to an end. My fears are overwhelming.
- Hotline support recipient in the West Bank, Palestine
Our partners in the West Bank have shared alarming accounts by Palestinian women who have experienced sexual abuse at the hands of Israeli forces and tell us that the sexual violence has increased since 7th October 2023.
Supporting women in Israel
We have partnered with an organisation in Israel, called ‘Women Against Violence’ that provides shelters for Palestinian and Jewish Israeli women survivors of violence and their children. In addition to housing, legal support and trauma counselling, they are creating social cohesion among women and children of different backgrounds in a safe space.
Join Us in Making a Difference
Even in this time of immense grief, sorrow, and anger, our 30-year history of working in conflict zones also offers us hope. Three decades ago, during the siege of Sarajevo and the Rwandan genocide, it was hard to imagine a day when women survivors of those wars would be thriving and, in some cases, working closely with sisters on the other side of those conflicts. And yet, through Women for Women International programmes, survivors of those wars are building peace.
We know that when we invest in women survivors of war, they create more peaceful households, communities and societies—building bridges across what at the outset might appear to be impossible divides.
