'War on Wombs': Gaza women reveal harrowing sexual violence

Palestinian women shared their harrowing experiences of sexual violence and abuse during Israel's war on Gaza at an online conference titled 'War on Wombs' on Monday.

The event was organised by the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) and gave the platform for Palestinian women to speak about their horrific experiences.

Evidence and data obtained by the organisation revealed that Palestinian women were regularly exposed to strip searches and rape by Israeli soldiers.

"Online content shared by Israeli soldiers also dehumanised women, referring to them sluts. Many soldiers documented themselves looting and taking part in sexual violence, especially at checkpoints," a spokesperson for WCLAC said, adding that settlers have also taken part in sexual violence, with an average of seven attacks occurring daily.

The spokesperson noted these attacks are the only ones that have been reported, while many others go unreported.

According to WLAC, the abuse of women has had negative impacts on young Palestinian girls and women, such as early marriages, high dropout rates from schools, domestic violence, and women losing their livelihoods.

Abuse in prisons

Palestinian field researcher Nadwa Barghouthy said women were particularly disadvantaged when it comes to imprisonment and have special needs which are not met by Israeli authorities.

At least 17,000 Palestinian women have been arrested since 1967 she said, adding that women have been historically treated in an abusive manner, particularly in terms of medical negligence, interrogations and torture.  

Barghouthy also noted that during arrests, women’s homes are often looted and destroyed, before they are taken for an interrogation which leaves them "mentally and physically tortured".

"Many women are put in solitary confinement and the cells don’t have basic needs such as toilets, windows or food. Over the last year, women haven’t been given clean water for hygiene, sanitary pads, or winter clothing – prison authorities don’t even give them underwear," she said.

In many cases, Israeli soldiers will threaten detained women with rape, however, women rarely go to the press out of fear of being re-arrested or due to social stigma, she added.

Assaults on mothers, wombs

WLAC has been documenting Israeli attacks on Palestinian mothers, maternity wards and fertility clinics, highlighting the impact this has had on women.

According to the group, citing a report by UN women, there has been an increase in miscarriages in Gaza by 300 percent in the last year.

One woman, who identified herself with the initials A.G. told the conference that female Israeli soldiers carried out rape and abuse regularly.

"The female soldiers threatened me with a gun and forced me to fully undress, then they proceeded to make me bend and poked me with a searching device everywhere on my body, including in my genital area, my rectum and my breasts," she said.

Randa Siniora, a Palestinian human and women’s rights activist, called on people to take action.

"The UN and international groups can do more than cover and document what is happening. We need practical steps on the ground by specialised UN agencies, and to push hard on key issues," she told The New Arab.

WLAC documented Israeli attacks on numerous maternity wards in Gaza, including the Al-Mahdi Maternity Hospital, Al-Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital.

The group added that Iyad al-Rantisi, a gynaecologist who served as the head of the maternity department at the Kamal Adwan Hospital was killed under torture on 17 November, while a missile attack in December 2023 destroyed the Al-Basma IVF centre which stored thousands of embryos, sperm samples and unfertilised eggs.

In one testimony Hanan, 34, from Gaza said she returned to the Al-Shifa Hospital when Israeli soldiers forced everyone to leave.

"I saw soldiers throwing premature babies from the upper floors to the ground after removing the tubes on their bodies in the nursery section. From the horror of the scene, I went out into the street and screamed, ‘What’s the fault of these children’?" she said.

Grim milestone

Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls said 7 October marks a "grim milestone" for Palestinian women, and that sexual violence, has also been committed against Palestinian men.

"Over the last 76 years, Palestinian women have faced collective and individual violations of their rights… they have been persecuted, subjected to ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and denied self-determination. But this last year has been one of the bloodiest chapters of human rights violations," she said.

According to Alsalem, gender-based violence against Palestinian women has been underreported, with at least 37 mothers killed daily in Gaza.

She said many news outlets have been biased and omitted key pieces of information when it comes to sexual abuses in Gaza, despite Israeli soldiers broadcasting their crimes in the Strip.

"No special measures have been adopted for mothers or their newborns," she told The New Arab, adding that most of Gaza’s population is facing some level of dehydration or hunger amidst a lack of resources.

"The attacks on women’s dignity when they menstruate is part of the reproductive violence…this is the first conflict where we have seen intimate items paraded by Israeli soldiers leaving Palestinians with no privacy."

Alsalem said that she believes Israel has violated Article 2 of the genocide convention which includes imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group, while Western governments have failed to condemn the actions.

First-hand experience

Fadia Barghouti, a woman from Ramallah and a former detainee, said that the experience for women is "bitter".

She was arrested in February 2023 after being detained from her home and was released in May 2024.

Her son and husband were also arrested, she said, being forced to leave her other son at home, which she said was psychologically challenging for her.

"My husband was imprisoned for nine years but I never knew what it was like until I experienced it myself. I was with around 90 others who were held in administrative detention," she explained.

Many women in detention with her were arrested for incitement, which she said was actually because of sharing their opinions online or re-posting social media posts.

She said she was arrested for calling for her husband’s freedom and demanding an improvement in the conditions of detainees.

"I was subjected to beatings; I was hit on my feet. I was taken to Ofar prison, then later to a camp where I was blindfolded and chained. I was regularly facing dirty insults and threats."

Like many others, she was subjected to a nude search, something she said was common.

"Soldiers forced me to repeat phrases in Hebrew which were pro-Israeli, they stepped on my hijab, and one female soldier sent her mother videos of them abusing me, and made me listen to the voice note response where the mother said she was proud of them humiliating me," she said.

She was forced to stay on a wet and old mattress, with all prisoners made to use a public toilet with two cameras pointing towards it, making many women starve so they would not have to use it.

"If I had to use the toilet, I would try to use it when it was dark," she said, adding women over 60 struggled with medical conditions, including hypertension and diabetes.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 41,909 Palestinians and wounded over 97,303 others. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 622 in the occupied West Bank.

Over the last year, Israeli forces have also killed 2,030 people in Lebanon.