UN agency says Israel’s war on Gaza also a ‘war on women’
More than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza so far, among them 6,000 mothers who have left behind 19,000 orphaned children, according to the UN’s women’s rights organisation.
In a new report on the gender impact of the war, UN Women also said that Palestinian women who have survived the Israeli air strikes and military ground operations are now displaced, widowed and facing starvation.
Israel’s war on Gaza is “also a war on women”, the UN agency said at the launch of the report: Scarcity and fear: A gender analysis of the impact of the war in Gaza on vital services essential to women’s and girls’ health, safety, and dignity.
Israeli settlers displaced entire West Bank communities: Human Rights Watch
Israeli settlers have “entirely uprooted” seven communities and displaced many more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“Settlers and soldiers have displaced entire Palestinian communities, destroying every home, with the apparent backing of higher Israeli authorities,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at HRW.
The seven communities HRW found were entirely displaced in October and November 2023 were:
- Khirbet Zanuta and Khirbet ar-Ratheem, south of Hebron
- Al-Qanub east of Hebron
- Ein ar-Rashash and Wadi as-Seeq, east of Ramallah
None of the families have been able to return home, with “one family with seven children, forced to flee on foot from al-Qanub” now living in a cinderblock storeroom, HRW said.
A Palestinian man looks at his torched car, in the occupied West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Saturday
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian homes in occupied West Bank
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have shared video footage showing Israeli forces using heavy construction equipment to destroy the home of a Palestinian family in the town of Bani Naim east of Hebron city.
Earlier, Israeli forces used explosives and poured fresh concrete to destroy the family home of a killed Palestinian in the town of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reported.
Wafa also reported raids on homes in Tubas city in the north of the occupied West Bank. Raids were also under way in Marda village, located north of Salfit city, and the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem.
A young Palestinian man was beaten by Israeli forces, then arrested during a raid south of Jenin, in the village of al-Fandaqumiya, according to Wafa.
قوات الاحتلال تبدأ هدم منزل عائلة فلسطينية في بلدة بني نعيم بالخليل بعد اقتحامها #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/MozULdAs2b
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) April 17, 2024
Translation: Occupation forces begin demolishing the home of a Palestinian family in the town of Bani Naim in Hebron after storming it.
