Gaza Herald – More than 12,000 Palestinian women have been killed in Israel’s genocide on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, including over 9,000 mothers, according to data released by the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs on International Women’s Day.
The ministry said Palestinian women marked the global occasion while enduring what it described as one of the most severe humanitarian catastrophes in modern history, as Israel’s prolonged military campaign devastated Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure.
The figures showed the deep social impact of the genocide on Palestinian families. Since October 2023, 21,193 women had been widowed, while 22,426 fathers were killed, leaving thousands of households without their primary breadwinners. In many cases, women had been forced to assume full responsibility for supporting their families amid widespread economic collapse.
The destruction of family structures had also been extensive. Authorities reported that 6,020 families were wiped out with only one surviving member, often a woman or a child, while 2,700 families were completely exterminated and removed from civil records.
Mass displacement further deepened the humanitarian crisis. More than 350,000 families lost their homes, while over two million people were internally displaced, including more than half a million women and nearly one million children, many of whom were living in overcrowded shelters with limited access to food, water, and medical care.
Human rights organizations said the data reflected a broader pattern of civilian casualties during the genocidal war. According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli attacks killed an average of 21 Palestinian women per day, roughly one woman every hour, highlighting what Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, described the situation as a form of “femicide-genocide.”
