A Cry for Humanity

Throughout the history of war, 95% of those affected have been innocent civilians. Militarism is out of control everywhere, cutting a violent swathe of pandemic proportions across the world. 80% of these civilians are women and children. For women, the dangers of war go far beyond the violence of combat. Women often become spoils of war, their deaths often regarded as collateral damage and bodies used as commodities to be traded.


Living in an open-air prison under brutal occupation, agonized by poverty, starvation and recurring aerial bombardment, 60 year old Fatma al-Najar, who had recently lost her grandchildren to the vicious war, strapped on a suicide belt and blew herself up amidst Israeli soldiers invading her refugee camp in December 2006.

Bled dry by the imposed siege for almost three years now, Gaza still prides itself on teaching the true meaning of dignity and honour to the rest of the world. In spite of the increasing human misery in Gaza, the plights and misfortunes of the Palestinians have only made them stronger, more adamant in their pursuit of liberty.

Although Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza strip in September 2005, Israel still controls all of Gaza’s borders, its airspace and territorial waters. Following the Hamas victory in the Palestinian Authority elections in 2006, Israeli and international economic sanctions have been imposed, creating an ongoing humanitarian crisis; and since 2007, Gaza has faced total collapse amid an Israeli blockade.



The Gaza War, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, was a three-week conflict that began on 27th December when Israeli forces launched a military attack on the Gaza strip. Based on Ministry of Health data reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) on January 14 2009, vast destruction from Operation Cast Lead has claimed over 1,400 lives, of whom 322 were children and 118 were women. There were also 4,560 injured Palestinians, 1,600 children and 825 women among them. Thus within Gaza, children and women comprise 39.3% of deaths, 50.0% of injuries, and 48.0% of total casualties. In contrast, Israeli casualties up to the same point comprise 13 fatalities and 58 injuries. Of the fatalities, 69% were military personnel.

Yet, Israel continues to propagate its traditional rhetoric of equating Palestinians with Nazis, caging them in prisons camps, punishing them for recklessly subscribing to the wrong God, or foolishly falling in the wrong racial category. Every act of Israel, be it ethnic cleansing, occupation, massacre or destruction, was always portrayed as morally just and purely in self-defense by the Israeli government. With no internal mechanism of criticism and no external pressure, every Palestinian becomes a potential target of this racist, hegemonic Zionist ideology, shielded by righteous fury.


Before Israel began its current war on Gaza, women in Gaza were already speaking of the double occupation they lived under: the Israeli occupation and an increasingly socially and religiously conservative society that seeks to control the female body and mind. With the “war on terror”, women will now face more insecurity and violence in the name of religion, tradition, and culture.
Palestine is essentially a patriarchal society where women have been socialised to adopt the role of homemakers while men are the sole breadwinners of the family. When men die in war, they not only leave behind fatherless children, they also leave behind widows. These widows are the sisters, daughters, cousins and neighbours of the community. In a society centered on men, where women largely stay home, it is difficult to imagine where the windows could turn for help. The only alternative is to either live with their families or remarry, as living alone in a conflict zone can prove to be quite dangerous. They are particularly susceptible to the marginalization, poverty, and suffering brought about as a result of armed conflict and occupation.


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' (PCHR) new report, titled "Through Women's Eyes”, reveals the plight of these women. They have not only been deprived of their right to life, but forced to witness their loved ones being blown to bits.

"I used to think I was the happiest woman in the world, now I have lost my daughter, my sons, my husband. I'm the saddest woman in the world, I am afraid to sleep. I am so scared in this house,” said Salah Abu Halima, whose entire family had been bombarded by Israeli soldiers.

On January 4 this year, Israeli soldiers fired a rocket at Ghalya Nimir’s rooftop, killing three sons and her daughter’s fiance. “All their bodies were cut in pieces and burned. They were wearing their Eid clothes. I saw their brains, all their pieces. I tried to carry them, but they were too hot, they were burned. You can't imagine what it was like," said Ghalya.

Hindia Abu Nabah, a 31year-old staff nurse at Al Zawya Clinic in Salfit district - says it is "a nightmare" to be pregnant in the West Bank today. "Recently, two of our pregnant patients here were tear-gassed in their homes ... The women couldn't breathe and went into premature labour. By the time we got there, the babies had been delivered stillborn.”

Such cold-blooded civilian killings by Israeli soldiers amount to genocide with no justifiable military objective.

Operation Cast Lead has been over for nine months, but the return to a state of siege, with unemployment at a record 45 per cent, has left a sense of helplessness and powerlessness among the residents. The women of Gaza have endured over two years of blockade. They have not only been killed, but also raped, sexually attacked, mutilated and humiliated. Forbidden to leave the Gaza strip, these women live in tents because their houses have been bombed by Israeli drones. They live with minimum electricity because power plants cannot be repaired. With no water, food, medicine, heat, fuel or shelter since the beginning of the war on Gaza on Dec 27, 2007, women have to fetch water, wood, food and shelter for their families. Majority of the women have given birth without any doctors or nurses. 30% of the pregnant women suffer from anaemia due to extreme poverty and starvation.

They have died in the streets when Israeli soldiers have refused to allow emergency medical personnel to take them to hospitals. They have witnessed the bodies of their children melt from white phosphorous wounds as they held their dying children in their arms. Many women were seen digging through the rubble of their destroyed homes to look for their buried children. Two mothers were killed and their young kids were hanging to their bodies for four days with no food or water until the Red Cross reached their home. Either they cannot sleep or when they do, their sleep is haunted by the constant images of death and destruction.

These women try to raise their voices to protest the abhorrence of their situation in Gaza, like many other people across the globe. But here their voices are quelled by sound bombs, tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds of ammunition used by the Israeli Defense Forces to break demonstrations in protest against the barrier cutting off the village from its land and protesting against the crises in Gaza.