The executive director of the United Nations Women, Cima Buhooti clarified in a statement that women and children are the primary victims of the tragedy in Gaza. She pointed out that since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood more than 100 days ago, Gaza has witnessed unprecedented destruction, with women and girls comprising the majority of the casualties, injuries, and displaced individuals.

Estimates indicate that “around one million displaced women and girls in Gaza, and two mothers are killed every hour, while about 10,000 children have lost their fathers.”

Buhooti has compared the conditions in the occupied Palestine before and after October 7, 2023, stating that the figures previously indicated that 67% of the victims were men, while less than 14% were women and girls. However, today, the numbers have flipped, with 70% of the martyrs in Gaza being women and children.

Buhooti emphasized that these are individuals, not just numbers, and expressed a commitment to not betray them. The spokesperson added that the shock experienced by the Palestinian people over these past hundred days and beyond will haunt everyone for generations. Regardless of the current sorrow for the situation of women and girls in Gaza, there will be even more grief tomorrow if unrestricted humanitarian aid is not provided to stop destruction and killing.

The UN official called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid for all Gaza residents, including providing assistance and vital services for all women and girls. She stressed that the world is obligated to work towards peace in the region because failure to bring about change means that the last hundred days will be just the prelude to the next hundred days.

In his statement, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, emphasized that women and girls in the Gaza Strip are losing their lives and facing catastrophic levels of humanitarian needs. He added that around 3,000 women have lost their husbands in the war or have become the sole providers for their families.

Dujarric further stated, “Current estimates indicate that about 70% of those killed in Gaza are women and children, with at least 3,000 women possibly becoming widows and heads of households. They are in desperate need of protection and food assistance.” He continued by highlighting that children constitute more than half of Gaza’s population, and the percentage of displaced children exceeds 90%.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that 20,000 children have been born in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a destructive war on it on October 7, 2023. This information was shared during a press conference held by UNICEF communications expert Tess Ingram in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ingram stated, “During the 105 days of escalating tension in the Gaza Strip, nearly 20,000 children were born in a war environment.” She added, “This means the birth of approximately one child every 10 minutes amid this terrible war.”

Ingram emphasized that the situation for pregnant women, newborns, and infants in the Gaza Strip is “unbelievable,” confirming the urgent need for immediate and intensified measures for them.

She further explained, “Pregnant mothers, breastfeeding mothers, and their children are living in inhumane conditions and temporary shelters. These individuals suffer from malnutrition, lack access to clean water, putting around 135,000 children under the age of two at risk of malnutrition.”

Before the operation “Aqsa Flood” on October 7, 2023, a sense of “defeatist spirit” spread throughout the Arab and Islamic bodies, accompanied by a state of resignation and submission to the harsh reality. It was akin to capitulation and surrender, as if the Arab and Islamic nations had died, and their enemies had risen to great heights.

Even the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) sought to convey this defeatist feeling to the occupation as a form of deception before the attack. So much so that the Zionist enemy intelligence informed the Tel Aviv government that the movement would not fight and had surrendered to reality, caring only about ruling Gaza.

According to Israeli newspapers, the enemy intelligence admitted that Hamas deceived them with this perception until they were taken by surprise by the “Aqsa Flood,” imposing a new reality that could hasten the “curse of the eighth decade”; the demise of the Jewish kingdom that had collapsed twice historically before reaching the age of 80.

The Palestinian resistance managed to break the stereotypical image ingrained in the minds of Arab and Islamic populations regarding surrender to the power of Israel. It presented the occupation state as a paper tiger, with its soldiers fleeing in fear, their faces marked by terror. Some were seen being pulled from their tanks and dragged like rag dolls before the world. It revealed that a few battalions of dedicated Palestinian youth, most of whom were Quran memorizers devoted to the cause of the nation, manufactured their weapons themselves. They succeeded in penetrating the occupying state using simple means such as kites, motorcycles, a few dilapidated vehicles. This splendid victory, which the occupier tried to cover up with massacres and destruction, led to the flow of blood once again in the veins of stagnant Arab and Islamic nations, which had been submissive for years to the notion that “Israel” is a reality that must be normalized. It revived the hopes of the nation, entirely.

The Hope of Uprising

The victory of the Palestinian resistance came as a kind of glad tidings, reminiscent of the prophecy given by the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, to the nation when he said, “Indeed, Allah sends to this Ummah at the head of every hundred years, someone who renews its religion,” after it had been afflicted by weakness.

Because it was a rare and extraordinary victory over an occupying force representing the essence of Western power used to suppress Arab and Islamic peoples in Palestine, preventing the nation from rising, the reaction of the people was also extraordinary. Arab and Islamic crowds flooded the streets and roads in the majority of Islamic and Arab capitals in support of the Palestinian people and in solidarity with them. There was no Islamic state whose sons did not come out to support the Palestinians, and their slogans were unified.

The messages conveyed by Arab and Islamic crowds revolved around supporting Hamas, rejecting normalization, and emphasizing that there is no solution to the liberation of the nation’s usurped lands by Zionist gangs except through strength, self-reliance, and the resources of the nation.

The chants and slogans in the protests that took place in Arab and Islamic countries were almost uniform in their support for the Palestinian resistance, rejection of the enemy’s plan, and America’s attempt to displace Palestinians from their land, as well as boycotting supporters of the occupation.

The movement of the people was not limited to Arab and Islamic countries; the crowds and protests in Western countries supporting the Palestinian cause and Arab and Islamic rights were more surprising and stronger than their counterparts in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

What distinguished the crowds in the Arab and Islamic worlds was that those who took to the streets were young generations unfamiliar with the history of the Palestinian cause due to media neglect and the promotion of normalization culture. They were more enthusiastic and creative in their ideas of solidarity against the Gaza genocide, utilizing modern technology. As for the crowds in America – which aggressively supported “Israel” – and all Western countries, they were a surprise not in terms of the number who participated but in terms of becoming more aware and resistant to the Zionist narratives and lies propagated for years about Arab and Islamic “terrorism.”

Those who demonstrated in the West not only demanded an end to the aggression and genocide in Gaza and punishment for “Israel” but also raised slogans considered by “Israel” and Western governments as “non-Semitic,” such as the slogan “From the River to the Sea,” meaning the establishment of a pure Palestinian state and the disappearance of “Israel”! Protests by American Jews against “Israel” and its unconditional American support, mostly from the “Jewish Voice for Peace” organization and the “If Not Now” organization, were a surprise because they were the most impactful when they raised slogans like “Not in Our Name,” criticizing the racism of the Zionist state. The war on Gaza created thousands of believers in the West with a mindset of resistance, affirming that resistance is not terrorism as they try to portray it, but rather a nationalist liberation movement for the lands of its people. Unified, perhaps for the first time, were the Arab and Islamic nations, as well as the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the West, in solidarity with Hamas. They rejected the label of terrorism for Palestinian resistance movements and affirmed their right to resist occupation, liberate their land, and defend their people.

They unified in confronting Western governments, especially the United States and Europe, which provided unprecedented support to the Zionist state in the form of lethal weapons against isolated and resilient people, engaged in a nationalist resistance armed only with locally crafted weapons. They united in demanding the accountability and trial of the killers according to international law and legitimate international resolutions. At the same time, they exposed their disdain for international justice and the current United Nations system, which is helpless in aiding hospitals subjected to bombing, invasion, and the killing of patients.

They united in fighting the moral and humanitarian collapse demonstrated by the West and international organizations, who stood by watching a genocide unfold against an isolated people deprived of water, food, medicine, and fuel. Their rejection of the international legitimacy farce that procrastinates in solving the Palestinian issue and their refusal of the farcical Palestinian normalization agreements with the Zionist entity, brought nothing but fragmentation, divisions, and tragedies to the Palestinian people.

The occupation seeks an image of victory by demolishing mosques, schools, and homes and raising the Zionist flag above the al-Shifa Hospital as if it were a symbol of extermination!

They united in rejecting the humiliation of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations by a corrupt international system built on the ruins of World War II, a system that favours the aggressor and the killer and does not support the oppressed and the slain. It excels in using the “veto” to prevent the condemnation of Zionists and obstruct what is called “legitimate international resolutions.”

In rejecting the international double standards applied by the United States and Western countries in dealing with the Palestinian issue and issues of Arabs and Muslims in general, to the point where European governments enacted laws punishing those who show solidarity with Gaza, and American companies fired those who sympathize with the victims of Zionist genocide in Gaza!

The Palestinian resistance exposed all those who manage a corrupt international system that has long sought to entrench injustice and oppression against the Arab and Islamic nations. When it brought down the occupied state on October 7, it opened the door to hope and the rise of the nation.

Source: Mugtama (Society)

Writer: Mohammed Jamal Arafat

Translation: PCOM Organization