Women caught in the conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas are now suffering from a severe shortage of menstruation hygiene productsto the point that they are having to cut canvas strips from tents and scraps of clothing as a substitute for sanitary pads, risking infection and deadly toxic shock syndrome.
Since the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian enclave began on October 7, the total siege on Gaza has prevented hygiene and period products from entering the Strip. Of the 1.9 million Gazans who have fled south to Rafah, one million are estimated to be women and girls and the United Nations estimated that there are 700,000 women and girls in Gaza experiencing menstrual cycles who cannot access the hygiene products.
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said the aid trucks that were able to penetrate the enclave mostly prioritized food and medical aid, rather than sanitary products for women. “Women in Gaza go to many places and walk long distances to search in all the pharmacies for pads, but they can’t find them,” Jafari told news outlet Middle East Eye. As a result, most females are now using menstruation-delaying pills to block their periods since sanitary products are scarce and pills are generally more available as they are not commonly used.
Also, keeping themselves clean is an added struggle. Many of them live in makeshift tents and have difficulty accessing clean running water and toilets due to overcrowding. With only one of three water pipelines in Gaza functioning, women are unable to wash themselves, some have said they’ve gone weeks without showering. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimated that there is only one toilet per 486 people at its shelters in Rafah.
“We suffer a lot whenever we want to go to the bathroom. We stand in line for a long time and the bathrooms are far away,” a woman who was displaced from her home with her four children told global federation ActionAid International. “This is a new form of suffering experienced by women in Gaza. This situation is extremely difficult for women and adolescent girls, who lack safe, private and dignified places to manage their menstrual hygiene,” Jafari added. Babies are being “delivered into hell”
Apart from the unsanitary living conditions, pregnant women in labor are undergoing cesarean procedures without anesthetic. What is worse, they are being discharged just hours after the operation, according to United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Tess Ingram.
Since there is only one operational maternity hospital left in Gaza, women in labor are forced to share beds or give birth in their tents or toilets. “Two women who were sharing a bed maybe an hour after getting a cesarean, they were then moved to a chair to free the bed up to somebody else, and discharged after three hours to go back to their shelter,” Ingram reported after she visited the El Emirati Maternity Hospital on Jan. 12. “They are terrified, they are scared about the lack of medical care, but they’re also scared about the prospect of bringing a newborn baby into such an uncertain place.”
UNICEF reported that 20,000 babies have been born in Gaza since the conflict started in October. After delivery, mothers are forced to nurse their newborns in tents and are often unable to find clothes and nappies. According to ActionAid, food supply shortages have left many new mothers too malnourished to breastfeed their newborns.
Meanwhile, a shocking press release dated January 19 from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, indicated that the Gaza crisis is impacting women and girls at unprecedented levels with loss of life and catastrophic levels of humanitarian need. The study found that around 70 percent of people killed in the enclave are estimated to be women and children, including two mothers per hour killed since the beginning of the crisis. (Related: Israel downplays assassination of two women in Gaza church by absurdly claiming they were “Hamas spotters.”)
UN Women also estimated that at least 3,000 women may have become widows and heads of household, in urgent need of protection and food assistance, and at least 10,000 children may have lost their fathers. And so, more women fear that families will resort to desperate coping mechanisms including early marriage.
The statement also said the organization is calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It asked that no effort should be spared to ensure womens and girls’ protection and safe access to rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance. It also reiterated its deep concern at accounts of unconscionable sexual violence and other gender-based violence during the attacks, its call for accountability, justice, and support for all those affected, and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Check out Humanitarian.newsfor more stories on the current living conditions of women and children in Gaza.
Watch the video below where theArchbishop of Westminster talks about Israel’s “cold-blooded” killing of two women in Gaza.
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After yesterday’s royal welcome from the King, French President Emmanuel Macron will get down to business today, meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for lunch, after PMQs.
But, as Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss on this episode, away from the pomp, Sir Keir’s in-tray doesn’t look any less challenging.
It includes a headache for Health Secretary Wes Streeting as resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, announce a new strike – and there is as a punchy warning from the OBR on making financial promises to the public.
Also today, the welfare bill returns to the House of Commons, with reports of another rebellion brewing.
While the politicians talk, so many people come from around the world to try to get across the Channel on small boats. But why?
Why make such a perilous crossing to try to get to a country that seems to be getting increasingly hostile to asylum seekers?
As the British and French leaders meet, with small boats at the forefront of their agenda, we came to northern France to get some answers.
It is not a new question, but it is peppered with fresh relevance.
Over the course of a morning spent around a migrant camp in Dunkirk, we meet migrantsfrom Gaza, Iraq, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and beyond.
Some are fearful, waving us away; some are happy to talk. Very few are comfortable to be filmed.
All but one man – who says he’s come to the wrong place and actually wants to claim asylum in Paris – are intent on reaching Britain.
They see the calm seas, feel the light winds – perfect conditions for small boat crossings.
John has come here from South Sudan. He tells me he’s now 18 years old. He left his war-torn home nation just before his 16th birthday. He feels that reaching Britain is his destiny.
“England is my dream country,” he says. “It has been my dream since I was at school. It’s the country that colonised us and when I get there, I will feel like I am home.
“In England, they can give me an opportunity to succeed or to do whatever I need to do in my life. I feel like I am an English child, who was born in Africa.”
Image: ‘England is my dream country,’ John tells Adam Parsons
He says he would like to make a career in England, either as a journalist or in human resources, and, like many others we meet, is at pains to insist he will work hard.
The boat crossing is waved away as little more than an inconvenience – a trifle compared with the previous hardships of his journey towards Britain.
We meet a group of men who have all travelled from Gaza, intent on starting new lives in Britain and then bringing their families over to join them.
One man, who left Gaza two years ago, tells me that his son has since been shot in the leg “but there is no hospital for him to go to”.
Next to him, a man called Abdullah says he entered Europe through Greece and stayed there for months on end, but was told the Greek authorities would never allow him to bring over his family.
Britain, he thinks, will be more accommodating. “Gaza is being destroyed – we need help,” he says.
Image: Abdullah says ‘Gaza is being destroyed – we need help’
A man from Eritreatells us he is escaping a failing country and has friends in Britain – he plans to become a bicycle courier in either London or Manchester.
He can’t stay in France, he says, because he doesn’t speak French. The English language is presented as a huge draw for many of the people we talk to, just as it had been during similar conversations over the course of many years.
I ask many of these people why they don’t want to stay in France, or another safe European country.
Some repeat that they cannot speak the language and feel ostracised. Another says that he tried, and failed, to get a residency permit in both France and Belgium.
But this is also, clearly, a flawed survey. Last year, five times as many people sought asylum in France as in Britain.
And French critics have long insisted that Britain, a country without a European-style ID card system, makes itself attractive to migrants who can “disappear”.
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Migrant Channel crossings hit new record
A young man from Iraq, with absolutely perfect English, comes for a chat. He oozes confidence and a certain amount of mischief.
It has taken him only seven days to get from Iraq to Dunkirk; when I ask how he has made the trip so quickly, he shrugs. “Money talks”.
He looks around him. “Let me tell you – all of these people you see around you will be getting to Britain and the first job they get will be in the black market, so they won’t be paying any tax.
“Back in the day in Britain, they used to welcome immigrants very well, but these days I don’t think they want to, because there’s too many of them coming by boat. Every day it’s about seven or 800 people. That’s too many people.”
“But,” I ask, “if those people are a problem – then what makes you different? Aren’t you a problem too?”
He shakes his head emphatically. “I know that I’m a very good guy. And I won’t be a problem. I’ll only stay in Britain for a few years and then I’ll leave again.”
A man from Sri Lanka says he “will feel safe” when he gets to Britain; a tall, smiling man from Ethiopia echoes the sentiment: “We are not safe in our home country so we have come all this way,” he says. “We want to work, to be part of Britain.”
Emmanuel is another from South Sudan – thoughtful and eloquent. He left his country five years ago – “at the start of COVID” – and has not seen his children in all that time. His aim is to start a new life in Britain, and then to bring his family to join him.
He is a trained electrical engineer, but says he could also work as a lorry driver. He is adamant that Britain has a responsibility to the people of its former colony.
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Axiom 4 mission’s crewmates began conducting biomedical research aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. Expedition 73 and Ax-4 crews found electrical muscle stimulation and cellular immunity. The Cargo transfers and exercise gear maintenance take a day for orbital residents.
Takuya Onishi, Situation Commander from JAXA( Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), has begun the shift in continuation of his space biology studies. His blood and saliva samples are being collected for storage and processing. Further, he spun the specimens in a centrifuge and placed the blood samples in the freezer. After that, he stowed the samples in the incubator.
JAXA’s Takuya Onishi Leads Cellular Immunity Study with Blood and Saliva Analysis
According to a report from NASA, the samples will be analysed to determine the effect of microgravity on cellular immunity, observe stress-related immune reactions, and learn about how to treat symptoms of immunity. The flight engineers Johnny Kim, Anne McClain, and Nichole Ayers spent their day on orbital lab maintenance and further support activities of the crew. Kim focused mainly on orbital plumbing as he replaced and drained the Tranquillity module.
Ayers checked cables and power components in the Destiny laboratory module and deactivated and placed the microscope. McClain took the cognition test on the laptop and kept on supporting the Ax-4 crew at a time of a busy schedule.
Ax-4 Crew Explores Muscle Stimulation and Space Suit Fabric Efficiency in Microgravity
Veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson and her Ax-4 crewmates Shubhanshu Shukla, Tibor Kapu and UznaÅ„ski-WiÅ›niewski conducted numerous space investigations throughout the lab. The private scientists in their second full week on the station found out that the electrical muscle simulation escalates the space-related and muscle atrophy in space. Ax-4’s other experiments looked at suit fabrics promote thermal comfort with exercising the weightlessness, crew health and agriculture in space.
Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy worked together on the Zvezda service module, repairing and organising components on a treadmill, one of the two inside the space station, which included the COLBERT treadmill. Kirill Peskov started his day by going through the biological samples from the crewmates. At the end of his shift, he transfers water from Progress 92 cargo craft and unloads the stuffs of hardware and crew supplies.