Women in Gaza bear brunt of war amid food insecurity, severe medicine shortages

Women in Gaza are heavily bearing the brunt of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, a new UN report published this week has revealed.

The report from UN Women states at least 557,000 women in Gaza are currently food insecure.

According to the report, many women, particularly mothers, often prioritise feeding others and go without food in order to do this.

The report found that women in the devastated territory are regularly being forced to skip meals or reduce their intake, choosing instead to give their portion of food to their children.

This has further endangered their health, caused malnutrition and increased their vulnerability to gender-based violence, the report says.

Around seven in 10 women in the Strip have reported weight loss in the past 30 days, with most of them experiencing frequent dizziness.

More than 80 percent of respondents who spoke to UN Women said they rely on food aid as their primary source of nutrition but noted that the available aid does not fairly account for the sizes of families.

Israel's siege and bombardment of the enclave has further put women at risk, with pregnant and lactating women having little to no access to adequate healthcare and nutrition.

The UN found that 76 percent of pregnant women are suffering from anaemia, and 99 percent are struggling to access nutritional supplements.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification states 495,000 people in Gaza currently face catastrophic acute food insecurity.

The UN Women report calls for humanitarian access, malnutrition prevention services and treatment and for the restoration of production and markets.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 37,765 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, since October and wounded at least 86,429 others in the same time frame.