“The city night is dark except for the glow of missiles, silent except for the sound of bombing, fearful except for the comfort of supplication, dark except for the light of martyrs. Good night, Gaza,” wrote Palestinian author and poet Hiba Abu Nada for the last time, before being killed by an indiscriminate Israeli strike on October 20. Only 32 years old, Hiba was killed in Khan Younes, in the south of Gaza where the Israeli authorities forced the Gazan population to move. An unjust and cruel death, like the 16,000 women, men and children who have suffered the same fate over the last two months.
We know that wars take place as much on the battlefield as in the bodies and souls of women, and the crisis in Palestine is no exception.
The numbers speak. Women and children represent nearly 70% of those killed by Israeli strikes, according to assessments relayed by the UN. For two months, thousands of women, including young people, pregnant women, married women, people with disabilities, doctors and journalists, have been forced to travel along deadly roads. They wave white flags to avoid being targeted by bombings, endure hours of waiting to access health facilities, and risk their lives for essential medical examinations.
Rooted in a 75-year occupation with a siege on Gaza for 17 years, women have seen their movements blocked, their potential limited, in other words their freedom curtailed. Women are not only affected in their physical and mental integrity, but also in their reproductive health and their caring role. The bombings would be blind to the civilian population to the point of erasing entire families from civil registers, of eradicating all cultural landmarks: schools, bakeries, places of worship, nothing escapes the war machine. “Every day when I go to sleep, I don’t know if I will wake up tomorrow, or if I will have a family,” writes Haya Abdelhadi, an Oxfam staff member displaced inside Gaza.
Normally, women and children have greater needs for health services than men. Currently, in Gaza, there are 50,000 pregnant women who need regular monitoring during their pregnancy, 5,500 women who are about to give birth and 180 babies who are born every day. These women suffer all the more from the destruction of the health system. They no longer have obstetric follow-up because even if there was fuel to ensure their transport, the journey to the hospital is too dangerous. And again, which hospital to go to? The 16 hospitals, out of a total of 30, which have not yet closed their doors are completely overwhelmed.
It is also women who, each month during their periods, have a greater need for water. Menstruation is unpredictable. Women and girls need access to a private bathroom with clean water at any time day or night to manage their periods with dignity.
Psychological violence is omnipresent. With every bombing of a residential building, hospital, ambulance, school, United Nations facility, the message is clear: there is no safe place for you and your family. Mothers must hide this observation from their children so that they can sleep a little, alleviate their anxieties by adding to themselves this burden that is already too heavy and difficult to imagine.
This war, the siege and the occupation are violence against Palestinian women. This nightmare has to stop. For the women of Gaza, a break does not allow them to breathe without fear. Terror, pain and suffering persist day and night. A humanitarian corridor allows flour to be delivered to women who have learned to bake bread in a metal container, or penicillin to a woman forced to terminate her pregnancy due to serious injuries. But doesn’t international humanitarian law mean that we should need neither corridors nor humanitarian breaks, since it categorically forbids attacking a civilian population? Only an immediate ceasefire, an end to the occupation and actions for lasting peace can save lives and restore our collective human dignity.
Because it’s our war too. When faced with injustice, we must break the silence. But here, it is not only our silence that is lacking. Canada must put itself on the right side of history and call for a ceasefire now. By its assertions and inactions, is the Government of Canada not giving carte blanche to the violation of international humanitarian law?
This war, filled with horrors, will be our war as long as we close our eyes. This war is a test of our humanity. For now, we are failing.