Women are leading Gaza recovery efforts amid ceasefire and must be at the heart of decision-making about the future, says ActionAid.
Today on International Women’s Day, ActionAid is highlighting the women in Gaza who have been at the forefront of the humanitarian response during the 15-month war and are now leading recovery efforts amid the ceasefire, providing essential services.
ActionAid is demanding that Palestinian women and girls, and the women-led organisations which support them, are no longer sidelined but placed at the centre of all decision-making about Gaza’s future. Women's leadership and participation must be a non-negotiable priority in the rebuilding and reconstruction process.
Women and girls bore the brunt of the 15-month war in Gaza and continue to be uniquely impacted in its aftermath. The ongoing restrictions on access to essential services such as maternal healthcare and services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence are a blatant violation of their rights.
Despite an average of 600 trucks entering Gaza each day during the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, the level of humanitarian need remains staggering. The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid, including the horrifying blockade imposed by the Israeli authorities on Sunday, is a direct attack on the survival and dignity of Palestinian civilians and must end immediately.
Sahar, head of the Palestinian Development Women Studies Association (PDWSA), ActionAid’s partner in Gaza which supports women and girls, said: “Women today struggle with nearly everything. They lack access to basic services and aid. A tent is not a home. Women are struggling to meet even their most basic needs. Urgently, we need assistance and increased funding.
“We need water, food, and medicine for women – these are urgent necessities. In the long term, we need to rebuild women's homes, providing them with safety and security.
“We need sustained support for small businesses, so that women can support themselves and their families. The number of women providing for their families has risen significantly: many women have been widowed or lost their husbands due to imprisonment or injuries that leave men unable to work. We must empower them, to help them support their families.”
Since day one of the war, PDWSA has been supporting women and girls by distributing essential items like food, hygiene kits and winter clothes; providing psychosocial, practical and legal support to women, including survivors of gender-based violence; and building key infrastructure such as private bathrooms and a displacement camp for women-headed households and their families.
Sahar said PDWSA managed to double its support for women during the war despite staff living through the same displacement and danger as the rest of the population, and having to work under impossible conditions with little food, water, electricity, transport and internet.
Sahar said: “The war had a major impact on us in PDWSA. We have lost members of our general assembly, the board of directors; some executive staff members were injured and had to leave for treatment.
“Like many organisations, PDWSA lost its main office...We lost everything – including our files and records. Now, we are rebuilding our work from the ground up. We need to restore our office, our services and our team to work again.”
Going forward, Sahar is demanding that women and women-led organisations like hers are not just consulted but fully included and have a seat at the table when it comes to decisions about Gaza’s future and building back. For too long, women's perspectives have been sidelined, despite their critical leadership in crisis response and recovery: this must change.
Sahar said: “We continue to play a role at our organisational level, within local community associations, and in small-scale local partnerships. But when it comes to large-scale decision-making – women’s representation remains very low.
“We always demand that women be included in decision-making circles. That women have a voice in shaping humanitarian response [and] be part of the institutions responsible for this work. When women are involved, aid reaches those who need it most.”
With nine out of ten homes razed to the ground and almost 70% of buildings destroyed, physically rebuilding Gaza will be a huge task: the UN says it could take 15 years to clear the rubble, much of which contains unexploded ordnance. Public services, like healthcare and education, which were pushed to the brink of collapse during the war, also need to be fully restored so that Palestinians can access their basic rights.
Randa, a lawyer with Wefaq Association, ActionAid’s partner in Gaza which supports women and girls, said Gaza’s judicial system had ground to a total halt during the war – and that women had been particularly impacted.
She said: “There are no [centres] or courts. Most of the headquarters were bombed. There are cases filed and archived in the courts. All of this was lost. All of the identification papers and files were [lost].
“Women's inability to access justice during this war...has led to an increase in rates of violence. This war has helped men evade giving women their rights, because of the absence of police and courts....many men have stopped granting rights to women, such as expenses or child support.”
In the absence of such crucial services, women’s rights organisations were forced to step in and plug the gap. Legal staff at Wefaq went to creative lengths to ensure women could access information and understand their rights, travelling from shelter to shelter under the constant threat of shelling to hold awareness workshops and legal consultations. They also ensured women could access their rights, for example by supporting women going through divorce to see their children.
Randa said rebuilding Gaza’s legal infrastructure should be a major priority, and that women should be central to the process.
She said: “Judicial representation is an urgent need for women. A large percentage of women need to file cases. When I receive calls on my mobile [the question most asked is:] “When will the courts start working? Many women contact me and they need a divorce, but with full rights.
Currently, we are in the process of a truce [in Gaza] but what is the vision after that? The matter is not clear to us, but we think that, God willing, there will be work through committees, women’s leadership, and through institutions that address the judiciary.”
Yet recovery cannot take place while a blockade deprives civilians of life-saving aid from entering Gaza and while the future of the ceasefire is uncertain. ActionAid demands that the blockade on aid is lifted immediately, and that a permanent end to the war is secured.
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said: “Women have been the unsung heroes during the last 17 months in Gaza, working at the forefront of the humanitarian response despite facing grave danger to support their peers and ensure the needs of women and girls are not overlooked. Their leadership must not be erased in the recovery process.
"While the road ahead to rebuilding Gaza is long, one thing is clear: Palestinians must be at the heart of all plans for Gaza’s future, and women, including the women-led organisations that support them, must have a seat at the table. Only then will Gaza be able to build back in a way that takes their needs into account. We demand that women’s voices are heard and play a key part of shaping the future of Gaza.
“This International Women’s Day, we raise our voices alongside theirs. No peace, no reconstruction, and no future for Gaza is possible without the full inclusion of women.”
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Photos, testimonies and video footage are available on request, and spokespeople are available for interview. Please contact the press office at uk.media@actionaid.org or on +44 7753 973 486 to arrange.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is an international charity that works with women and girls living in poverty. Our dedicated local staff are changing the world with women and girls. We are ending violence and fighting poverty so that all women, everywhere, can create the future they want.