<\/p>\n
15 July 2025<\/p>\n
GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territory<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThere\u2019s been a sharp increase in survivors seeking help,\u201d said Suhair, who works at a safe space for women and girls in Gaza\u2019s central Deir El-Balah Governorate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working under extremely difficult conditions, including repeated incursions. There aren\u2019t enough safe spaces for women and their children,\u201d she told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.<\/p>\n Repeated, forced displacements, movement restrictions and a prolonged lack of fuel and electricity have also made it more difficult to help those most at risk. \u201cWe\u2019re providing services over the phone because survivors can\u2019t reach safe spaces,\u201d added Suhair.<\/p>\n The war in Gaza has killed entire families and destroyed communities. Widespread illness, poverty, mass displacement and depleted healthcare and social services are all\u00a0heightening stress levels<\/a><\/em>\u00a0within households, leading to rising reports of increased domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse. And many are turning to child labour and forced marriage to cope with\u00a0devastating levels of hunger<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mental and physical health risks<\/strong><\/p>\n The safe spaces offer not only shelter, but psychological support and coping mechanisms to help manage a\u00a0growing mental health crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen have experienced immense loss, including the death or imprisonment of relatives,\u201d Ibtisam, 58, told UNFPA. \u201cLooking for water, living without any privacy, and constantly worrying \u2013 it’s exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n With over\u00a0714,000 people<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 one third of Gaza\u2019s population \u2013 forced to move once again over the past three months, families are being separated and the local support structures they once relied on have crumbled. Women and girls in particular describe feeling afraid on the street, at aid delivery points and in overcrowded, makeshift shelters that lack privacy, sanitation or basic security measures.<\/p>\n \u201cRepeated displacement has created deep instability and insecurity, as the airstrikes never truly stop,\u201d said Amal, 36, a case manager for the UNFPA-supported Women\u2019s Affairs Centre in the Bureij refugee camp. A mother of three children, she has been displaced four times and lost ten family members when her home was bombed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pain and loss were overwhelming, but I continued to work, providing psychological support to women to ease their suffering. As a working woman, I face the added burden of trying to balance the demands of my family with my responsibilities outside the home \u2013 something that has become increasingly difficult under the weight of war.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reaching the most vulnerable\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n After four months of Israel\u2019s blockade on humanitarian assistance into Gaza, nearly all displacement sites report people sleeping in the open, with no means of protection. Safe space workers heard many painful testimonies, but these accounts remain significantly underreported<\/a><\/em>\u00a0mainly due to stigma, fear of retaliation, and lack of information about available services. With the collapse of the health, social and justice systems, many survivors are unable to report the abuse or seek care, compounding their trauma and perpetuating impunity for the abusers.<\/p>\n Asmaa, 38, works at a UNFPA-supported safe space in northern Gaza. \u201cOne of the most important aspects of my work is getting people with disabilities access to health and other services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n With mobility severely restricted, telecommunications networks failing, and security risks rising, survivors with disabilities \u2013 who already face heightened barriers to accessing support \u2013 are now even more isolated, invisible in a collapsing protection system.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite all the difficulties, I continue to support abused women and girls,\u201d said Asmaa, who has been forced to move ten times since the war began. \u201cI feel a deep sense of empathy for every case I support. I fully understand the pain of need, hunger and repeated displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Resilience amid catastrophe<\/strong><\/p>\n With constant disruptions from hostilities and evacuation orders, many providers have lost essential equipment and files, meaning they must re-establish services from scratch, often in impossible circumstances.<\/p>\n Some have shifted to remote support, but the lack of fuel has also triggered widespread telecommunications blackouts, severing hotlines for survivors and making even remote case management unfeasible.<\/p>\n As fuel shortages limit critical infrastructure, the UN has warned there could be\u00a0a total collapse of humanitarian operations<\/a><\/em>, and some\u00a080 per cent<\/a><\/em>\u00a0of health facilities providing life-saving care are expected to run out of fuel in the coming days.<\/p>\n Since the blockade was imposed on 7 March, no UNFPA supplies have entered Gaza; the agency\u2019s menstrual hygiene kits and other equipment are currently depleted. Three UNFPA-supported safe spaces have shut down and the\u00a0remaining 14 are operating<\/a><\/em>\u00a0at very limited capacity.<\/p>\n Salma, 38, a mother of four and case manager in Khan Younis added, \u201cWe feel the urgent needs of women and recognize the importance of supporting them. A small effort can make a big difference in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 15 July 2025 GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territory\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThere\u2019s been a sharp increase in survivors seeking help,\u201d said Suhair, who works at a safe space for women and girls in Gaza\u2019s central Deir El-Balah Governorate. \u201cWe\u2019re working under extremely difficult conditions, including repeated incursions. There aren\u2019t enough safe spaces for women and their children,\u201d […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[2337],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,2005,6257,1741,1745,6901,6245],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-309094","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-population-fund-unfpa","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-gender","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-sexual-violence","document-subject-violence","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/309094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/309094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309097,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/309094\/revisions\/309097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=309094"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=309094"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=309094"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=309094"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=309094"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=309094"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=309094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}