‘1 Million Women, Girls Facing Displacement, Disproportionate Toll of War in Gaza’: UN Women Report

The conflict in Gaza has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and the destruction of around 90% of civilian infrastructure including homes, schools and designated shelters. Israel’s tightened blockade has severely restricted access to essential services like water, food, electricity and sanitation. Those who do survive, face the threat of starvation, recurrent displacement and diseases, creating a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale and magnitude.

Against this backdrop, the UN Women advocacy brief titled “The Cost of War in Gaza on Women and Girls” was released on April 17, 2026. Using a temporal and gender-focused lens, it documents the impact of the extreme humanitarian crisis on women and girls from October 2023-December 2025 and traces how gender-specific vulnerabilities evolved and intensified over the course of the war. 

A press release by the Palestinian Embassy in India, which highlighted the UN report and shed light on some of its key aspects, said that over 70% of those killed in the conflict are women and children.

It added that 90% of the population is facing acute food insecurity, with women and children being among the most affected. The Embassy also highlighted a deeply concerning trend of women and girls, including minors, being compelled to resort to the use of contraceptive pills to delay or avoid menstruation due to severe shortages of personal hygiene supplies and essential care products. This further underscores the unequal impact of the war on women and children.

Disproportionate impact on women and children

About 38,000 women and girls were killed between October 2023-December 2025. This figure is far higher than those observed in previous conflicts in Gaza, when women and girls accounted for 15% of fatalities in the 2008-2009 and 22% of fatalities in the 2014 conflicts. 

Also, fatalities among women and children peaked during periods of intensified bombardment, especially in the first six months of the war, when women and children accounted for nearly two-thirds of deaths. 

Moreover, the rise in the deaths of women and children coincided with periods of large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure. Nearly 59% of all women and child fatalities occurred during this period of peak violence, underscoring their vulnerability to direct and indirect attacks. In addition, conservative estimates by UN Women suggest that there are close to 11,000 women and girls with lifelong injuries, requiring long term rehabilitation.

During this period, nearly 1 million women and girls also faced displacement, many of them being displaced more than four times. This disproportionately affected vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, women with disabilities etc., who are forced to relocate with minimal assistance. Furthermore, relocation to overcrowded sites and restricted access to essential resources and basic necessities forced women to limit food and water intake and sacrifice menstrual hygiene, which may further affect their general as well as reproductive health. 

Restricted access to sexual and reproductive health services

The war has severely limited women and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. At least, 927 attacks have targeted health facilities and ambulances, including major maternity wards and fertility clinics through October 2023-October 2025. By September 2025, only 37% of 358 SRH service points remained functional. The destruction of the al-Basma IVF Centre eliminated Gaza’s fertility clinic and its genetic bank, foreclosing reproductive choices for thousands of families. 

Emergency obstetric and newborn care services, including Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICUs), were operating at up to twice their designed capacity. At the same time, worsening maternal malnutrition heightened risks of low birth weight, stillbirth, and maternal mortality. Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, reports indicate that approximately 15 births occur outside hospital settings each week, often without skilled attendance or safe delivery conditions. This constitutes a gendered form of violence that undermines women’s autonomy, health, and life prospects across generations.

A new household composition and the social cost of war

The prolonged war and Israel’s tightened blockade has also prevented essential commodities from entering Gaza. By September 12, 2025, at least 369 deaths from malnutrition had been verified. More than 49,500 children were receiving treatment for malnutrition by October, 2025. By July, 2025, approximately 40% of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished and an estimated 500,000 women and girls risked starvation. This was because accessing food via near militarized food distribution points led to around 2,600 civilians being killed and 19,182 being injured, making it more difficult for women and girls to access food at these centres. 

The humanitarian crisis is expected to remain critical for at least six months following the ceasefire. An estimated 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and about 50,000 girls require treatment for acute malnutrition in the year following the ceasefire, highlighting the enduring and disproportionate impact of the conflict on women and children. 

Men account for 48% of total fatalities since October 2023. This has reshaped the household composition and led to a growing number of de facto women-headed households (WHHs). UN Women estimate that approximately 14% of all households are now headed by women, as compared to only 9% before the escalation of conflict in 2023. With evidence suggesting that WHHs are more likely to be displaced (88%) than male-headed households (77%), WHHs are at a disadvantage. 

Another important aspect of the war is the devastation of educational infrastructure by the IDF. The inability of girls and women to receive education exacerbates gender inequalities. For women, the destruction of schools removes a major employment avenue, as most of the teachers in Gaza are female. 

However, the consequences are particularly severe for girls as they face early and forced marriages, child labour, reinforcement of traditional gender roles and inequalities, and severe limitation of opportunities for voice, agency and employment in the future.

Call for Action

It is in response to such a dire situation that the UN Women issued a call for action and put forth a five-point agenda:

• To uphold the ceasefire in Gaza and ensure full compliance with its terms.
• To ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and support conditions conducive to a just and durable peace.
• To ensure the provision of immediate unimpeded, at-scale humanitarian assistance to all Palestinians in Gaza, including services that address the gender-specific needs and priorities of women and girls. 
• To strengthen efforts to increase the availability of data and analysis of the gendered impact of the war on women and girls in Gaza and improving documentation of international human rights law violations experienced by women and girls, to help support accountability processes during recovery and reconstruction.
• Implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 and its subsequent resolutions in Palestine, to ensure Palestinian women’s role in peace building, recovery and reconstruction, while enabling equal access to justice, remedies, and reparations.

Aman is an editorial intern at The Wire.

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