Today marks one year since Israel unleashed a ruthless retaliatory military campaign against Palestinians, in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people, including civilians, and taking 250 people as hostages. Israel’s subsequent siege on the Gaza Strip and military offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in history. Indiscriminate, disproportionate, and other unlawful attacks have killed over 42,000 people and injured 96,000, the vast majority of whom are women and children. In fact, the Israeli military has killed more women and children in a single year than have been killed in any other conflict in the last two decades. As we commemorate one year since the military onslaught on Gaza, Israel has expanded its attacks, into the West Bank and now with significant escalations in Lebanon since last month. Moreover, an anticipated attack on Iran by Israel––which may target oil refineries and nuclear facilities––severely threatens the security and well-being of millions of people in Iran and the region. This underscores the urgent need for an arms embargo on Israel as well as an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has resulted in an alarming scale of death and destruction. In addition to the counted death toll, over 10,000 people are missing, or presumed dead underneath the rubble. Approximately 1.9 million people – 90% of Gaza’s population – have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times due to continued bombardment, even in spaces that are meant to be “safe,” including schools, houses of worship, and hospitals. Almost half a million people are subjected to catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Israel has devastated civilian and vital infrastructure, with 60% of homes and 68% of roads damaged or destroyed, and more than half of hospitals rendered inoperative, while Israel has also deliberately targeted many healthcare workers and other humanitarian workers. In addition, 85% of schools have been bombed and all of Gaza’s 12 universities have been partially or fully destroyed, amounting to scholasticide––or the systematic destruction of education. Consequently, 625,000 children have been out of school for a whole year now, with detrimental impacts for generations to come. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 120 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the war, making it the deadliest recorded conflict for journalists.
While all segments of Gaza’s population have been affected by mass atrocities, women and girls have been particularly impacted due to systemic gendered inequalities. Over a million Palestinian women and girls are suffering from catastrophic food insecurity and the lack of access to food, clean water, and sanitation, has had devastating impacts on nursing mothers and pregnant women. Women and girls are disadvantaged in accessing supplies, including menstrual hygiene supplies, health and social services, and resources, with the greatest negative impact on women-headed households, where women bear the sole responsibility of feeding and providing for their families. According to media reports, women have been subjected to harassment and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) as a result of continued forced displacement. Women are also more likely to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of elderly relatives or family members with disabilities who are unable to move. Familial and community tensions are rising as the war drags on and this consequently increases the likelihood of gender-based violence (GBV).
Beyond Gaza, Israel has significantly scaled up its military operations against Hezbollah since September. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports that more than 2,000 people have now been killed in Israeli attacks since last October, including 127 children and 261 women. While Israel claims to be targeting Hezbollah’s military sites and infrastructure, many civilians have been killed or injured. On September 23rd, the killing of 569 people, including 50 children and 94 women, constituted the deadliest day for Lebanon since the end of the civil war. The intensified Israeli attacks on Hezbollah’s leadership, military infrastructure, and communications network prompted a response from Iran, and a retaliatory attack by Israel is now expected. This threatens an all-out region-wide conflict with devastating impacts, including serious environmental impacts if Iran’s oil refineries or nuclear facilities are targeted, for the populations of these geographies, of whom vulnerable and structurally excluded communities, including women, will be the most affected.
Femena urges the international community to exert pressure on Israel to accept an immediate ceasefire. We also demand an arms embargo on Israel by Western governments, particularly the U.S. and Germany, who are Israel’s biggest weapons suppliers. The urgent demand for an arms embargo is underscored by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) January 2024 ruling concerning the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continued impacts on civilians. Furthermore, we demand the international community hold all parties to the conflict accountable for wide-ranging war crimes and crimes against humanity committed over the past year.
As we recall this day and the unspeakable violence and devastations that ensued, we urge the international community to understand the events of October 7, 2023, within the context of Israel’s settler colonialism, its decades-long occupation of Palestinian Territories, and deeply entrenched injustices that have robbed Palestinians of their basic human rights and dignity. A sustainable and just solution for Palestine and Lebanon cannot be established through military campaigns, violence, and terrorizing civilians. It requires the immediate end of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, which has been deemed unlawful by the ICJ, and affirmed by a recent UNGA resolution where member states voted overwhelmingly to end the occupation of Palestinian territories. We also demand that the Israeli government immediately withdraw from the south of Lebanon and refrain from occupying the south to create a buffer zone. Only through a political solution, guaranteeing justice and accountability, will the people of this region see the peace and security to which they are entitled.