‘I am broken’: The women enduring domestic violence amid Israel’s war on Gaza
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/25/i-am-broken-the-women-enduring-domestic-violence-amid-israel-war-on-gaza
The face of Samar Ahmed, 37, shows clear signs of exhaustion.
It is not just because she has five children, nor that they have been displaced several times since the start of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza 14 months ago and are now living in cramped, cold conditions in a makeshift tent in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. Samar is also a victim of domestic violence and has no way to escape her abuser in the cramped conditions of this camp.
Two days ago, her husband beat her around the face leaving her with a swollen cheek and a blood spot in her eye. Her eldest daughter clung to her all night following that attack, which happened in front of the children.
Palestinian women and children sit in a makeshift tent next to the rubble of a house in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip
No health facilities in northern Gaza are operational
We can confirm now that the northern part of the Gaza Strip lacks any proper access to health facilities. The Indonesian Hospital, the largest health facility in northern Gaza, is out of service.
It’s now only a shelter with a minimum level of healthcare provided to people given the deliberate, constant attacks on its essential facilities, as well as arrests of a large number of medical staff.
There is a video circulating by the Israeli military of soldiers on the ground, bragging about destroying the majority of the hospital.
The other health facility is known as al-Awda Hospital, operated by a charitable organisation. It worked in the past few weeks as a subordinate system for Kamal Adwan Hospital, in terms of providing medical staff and supplies – but not any more.
The upper floor of this hospital has been destroyed. Its medical staff were burned, set on fire. The surrounding areas has become dangerous, because of the constant attacks, preventing any sort of movement between Kamal Adwan and al-Awda Hospital.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is rendered nonoperational given all the constant attacks and the use of explosive devices at its facility that have turned the area into a war zone, impeding all movements in and out of the hospital.
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