On the eve of International Women’s Day, the Health Ministry in Gaza said the Israeli army has killed nearly 9,000 Palestinian women in the course of its devastating onslaught on the enclave.
“The silence of the international community has contributed to the genocide of Palestinian women,” Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said Thursday in a statement.
He added that “60,000 pregnant women in Gaza suffer from malnutrition, dehydration and a lack of proper health care.”
Al-Qudra noted that Palestinian women, particularly in Gaza, are experiencing the worst humanitarian catastrophe “of killing, displacement, arrest, miscarriage, epidemics and death from hunger as a result of the Israeli aggression.”
He urged the United Nations to work for “an immediate halt of the Israeli aggression and genocide” and also called on “international women’s organizations to mobilize efforts to end the Israeli aggression” on Gaza.
On March 8, the world will celebrate International Women’s Day under the theme “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which Tel Aviv said killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.