In Gaza, women are on the brink warns Amnesty International

A Palestinian woman walks through debris at the Al-Baqa cafe, which was devastated by an Israeli strike on the Gaza waterfront on June 30, 2025. © OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP

In Gaza, some women are giving birth in overcrowded tents today, without medication or medical follow-up. Others have to share a single incubator for several newborns. According to Amnesty International, the situation is now so critical that Palestinian women are “on the brink of the abyss.”

In a report published on Tuesday, March 10, the human rights organization described the particularly brutal impact of the war on Palestinian women, after 29 months of conflict in the enclave.

According to Amnesty, women and girls are facing “aggravated and potentially deadly injuries” in a context marked by massive population displacements, food shortages, and restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The Secretary-General of the NGO, Agnès Callamard, denounces a “systematic erosion” of their rights. She accuses Israel of conducting a “deliberate act of war against women and girls,” which she links to the “genocide” denounced by the organization in the Gaza Strip.

To support this assessment, Amnesty relies on interviews conducted in February with 41 displaced women, several of whom are pregnant or have cancer, as well as with 26 healthcare professionals. Their testimonies describe a medical system close to collapse.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 60% of health facilities in Gaza are currently out of service. In still operational maternity wards, neonatal units are operating at up to 170% of their capacity, sometimes forcing medical teams to place multiple infants in a single incubator.

The shortages further exacerbate the situation. More than half of essential medications are no longer available, forcing caregivers to reuse equipment designed for single use or to use expired anesthetics.

The war also directly affects the health of pregnant women. According to the United Nations, 37,000 pregnant or lactating women could suffer from acute malnutrition by October 2026.

Patients with chronic conditions are also facing a medical impasse. Over 18,500 people now require urgent medical evacuation, but leaving the enclave has become nearly impossible.

“No hospital in Gaza currently offers radiotherapy,” testifies a nurse quoted in the report. The medical evacuation system has been “completely halted” since the closure of major crossing points, notably at Rafah, following the offensive launched in late February by the U.S. and Israel against Iran.

At the same time, several humanitarian organizations are seeing their presence threatened. In total, 37 NGOs could lose their operating permits, including Doctors Without Borders, whose accreditation has not been renewed.

According to Amnesty International, these various crises are exacerbating the health situation in the enclave. Faced with what the organization describes as “cascading catastrophes,” it calls on the international community to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel to fully lift the blockade and ensure access to healthcare for the population of Gaza.