Women Suffer a Silent Menstrual Emergency in Gaza

By IPS

HAVAVA TIMES – While the Palestinians trapped in Gaza sink ever further “into the abyss,” nearly 700,000 women and girls face “a silent emergency in menstrual hygiene, with serious consequences for their health, protection, dignity and human rights,” UN agencies highlight.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Population Fund calculate that Gaza needs 10.4 million sanitary napkins or tampons a month.

However, three months after Israel imposed a total blockade on aid to Gaza, the existence of sanitary and menstrual supplies there is nearly exhausted. Since the border crossings were closed on March 2, the kits assembled for women’s dignity remain piled up, unable to enter the Strip, where the 2.3 million residents have suffered through 600 days of war.

Prices of the few remaining menstrual and sanitary products have skyrocketed up to five times their pre-war cost, which puts them out of reach for most people.

“It’s not only a question of short supplies – it’s a true crisis of health, dignity and protection,” one of the OCHA reports deplored.

The UN agencies stress that deficient menstrual hygiene in emergency situations, “increases the risk of gynecological infections and complications” over the long term. It could also “increase the risk of gender violence, harassment and exploitation.”

“The restrictions on movement and access to basic services for women and girls increases their isolation and vulnerability,” both the OCHA and the UN Population Fund indicate.

They stress that in overpopulated shelters, the women and girls lack intimacy, safe bathrooms, and access to water, “which forces them to adopt survival strategies that compromise their safety as well as their dignity.”

Further, “water insecurity affects 90% of households in Gaza, forcing families to make impossible choices between drinking, cooking or washing.”

Due to the serious shortage, women and teens utilize old clothes, torn cloth, or sponges as sanitary supplies. “Without clean water, they can’t wash or reuse these materials safely, which increases the risk of infection,” the reports note.

Some women in Gaza affirm that they skip meals or reduce their intake of liquids in order to avoid using the unhealthy toilets. In the overpopulated shelters where there’s no privacy, managing menstruation becomes a risk in itself.

“Young girls describe menstruation as a source of shame, panic, and isolation. For many, it’s a time of profound anxiety and anguish, especially in situations of displacement where privacy is non-existent,” the Population Fund report describes.

The UN agencies indicate that, despite the serious limitations on access and the interruptions in the supply chains, they’re trying to aid the population. Since October 2023, over 300,000 women and girls have received a two-month supply of disposable sanitary napkins.

The “dignity kits, “menstrual hygiene supplies, and financial aid have allowed 150,000 women to buy essential items such as sanitary napkins, soap, underwear and bath towels.

This “silent emergency of menstrual hygiene” comes at a time when the accumulation of solid waste in Gaza City has reached an “alarming level,’ with over a quarter of a million tons of garbage that continues building up and impacting the health and environmental conditions.

The growing volume of uncollected garbage “has created ideal conditions for the spread of diseases, attracting insects and rodents and comprising a grave public health menace,” the OCHA report warns.

Municipal services have been able to pick up some of the garbage and take it to provisional dumps in the city. But these methods have been limited by the serious fuel shortage and lack of vehicles for garbage collection.

Amid all this, Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip are incessant. The Gaza Health Ministry, managed by the Hamas militia, reported 62 Palestinians killed and 184 wounded on May 29, without including the hospitals at the northern end of the Gaza strip. They also report that 54,249 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli assault, while 123,492 have been wounded and thousands are missing.

The current conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched an attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and taking 250 people hostage. Many of the latter have been exchanged for Palestinian prisoners or died during captivity.

First published in Spanish by IPS and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.

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