2 ay önce

World denounces ‘disgusting’ Israeli actions against Palestinian women

Unacceptable, disgusting, disrespectful. These were words that women across the world felt about the actions of Israeli soldiers in Gaza, such as posing with underwear of Palestinian women displaced from their homes.

Reuters

Acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, have meant that many have had to give birth in tents and bathrooms, while others have performed C-sections without anaesthesia. / Photo: Reuters

As the world marks International Women's Day, there is no turning away from the disturbing images and videos emerging every day from Palestine, over five months into a brutal Israeli offensive.

Among them are instances of violations of the privacy and human dignity of Palestinian women.

One such example is how Israeli soldiers posed with and showcased underwear belonging to Palestinian women on social media after raiding their homes in Gaza.

"It is horrible. What is going on is so so so disgusting. (Israeli troops) don't care for Gazan women, they don't care for Palestinian youth and children and occupants of their birthright lands," American student Abby Mizan, 15, said.

"And women are so easily being mocked publicly, with no response from other foreign nations, no response from the United States government," Mizan added.

Soraya Musa, 53, a Palestinian American, said the Israeli army is "denigrating and degrading" Palestinian women to "dehumanise" them.

"I would love to see our mainstream media here in America talk about this and how they are dehumanising women, how they are using these acts. This is acts of violence, and nobody is talking about it. I have not seen the white feminists in America speak about this issue," Musa said.

In a message to women in Gaza for International Women's Day, fellow Swiss women Viviane Nascimento, 38, urged that they not let go of hope: "We're rooting for them all to come out of this okay."

At least 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed in Gaza, where the death toll from Israel's ongoing offensive has exceeded 30,700, while over 72,000 others have been injured.

The Israeli war has pushed 85 percent of Gaza's population into internal displacement, including about 1 million women, roughly 52,000 of whom are pregnant.

Acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, have meant that many have had to give birth in tents and bathrooms, while others have performed C-sections without anaesthesia.