RAFIF ESLEEM

Gaza- Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that started on October 7,2023 ended after the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel took effect on Sunday. Despite the difficult living conditions caused by Israeli attacks on Gaza, Palestinian women keep struggling to survive, criticizing the silence of the international community against the attacks.

Ruba El-Misri is one of the Palestinian women, who had never expected the war on the Gaza Strip to last so long and that they would be left so alone. In an interview with NuJINHA, she expressed disappointment that international organizations and women’s rights organizations have not taken a step to provide psychological support and main supplies for women, such as food and hygiene products, since the beginning of the war.

‘The number is probably higher’

“How could they leave children and women alone for about one and a half years?” she asked. “According to international reports, 80 percent of those who were killed in the Israeli attacks are women and children. This number is probably higher.”

After each Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip, Ruba El-Misri thought that the war would end the next day and that the international community would not remain silent against the killing of women and children anymore. “However, the international human rights organizations and human rights defenders did not take any action.”

They develop small-scale projects

Ruba El-Misri believes that the full extent of what women in Gaza have experienced in the war has not yet been revealed. “Revealing what Israeli forces did during the ground offensive requires courage because these facts can be very painful and shocking.”

More than 50% of women in the Gaza Strip are left alone with their children, according to Ruba El-Misri. “As Palestinian women, we have developed small-scale projects such as pastry, sewing and making ‘maftool’, a traditional Palestinian dish, to earn a living.”

Call for support for Palestinian women

In her speech, Ruba El-Misri called on international women’s organizations to “come to Gaza and see the needs of women on the ground. Palestinian women have lost everything and they must be supported. I think Palestinian women deserve support the most.”

Whenever Ruba El-Misri walks around the city of Gaza, she feels like she is in a nightmare. She hopes the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will end the war. “If the war ends, the first thing that I will do is to learn how my relatives living in northern and southern Gaza are. I want to return to my home, even if it was destroyed and to be engaged in agriculture again.”