More Than 28,000 Women in Gaza Have Lost Their Husbands, While Women Breadwinners Face Extremely Harsh Humanitarian and Social Conditions
Ramallah – The widespread loss of family breadwinners in the Gaza Strip has created an extremely serious humanitarian and social reality for thousands of women. Growing numbers of women have suddenly found themselves bearing full responsibility for supporting their families and managing their affairs, while coping with bereavement, displacement, the loss of income, and severe difficulties in securing the most basic necessities of life.
The Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of State for Relief warn that the growing number of women who have assumed responsibility for supporting their families threatens to have long-term social and economic consequences. These women are being forced to shoulder the combined burdens of providing for their families, caregiving, and managing household affairs under exceptional humanitarian conditions marked by instability, insecurity, and inadequate protection networks.
According to estimates by UN Women, one in every seven households in the Gaza Strip is currently headed by a woman, while more than 28,000 women have lost their husbands during the aggression. This has placed thousands of women under immense pressure, beginning with the daily struggle to secure food, water, shelter, and other basic necessities and extending to assuming full economic and social responsibility for their families in the absence of stable sources of income.
This reality is further complicated by the loss of official and identification documents by many women, including marriage certificates, personal identification papers, and other essential documents. This creates additional barriers to verifying their information, completing legal and administrative procedures, and accessing their rights, essential services, and assistance programmes.
In overcrowded shelters and displacement camps, the pressures facing women are compounded by limited privacy and the absence of a safe environment. Repeated displacement, difficulties in accessing basic necessities, and mounting psychological and social pressures place a particularly heavy burden on women who have become solely responsible for supporting their families.
The two ministries caution that the absence of stable income sources and social protection programmes tailored to the needs of women breadwinners threatens to worsen their economic and social conditions and deepen poverty and deprivation. This requires moving beyond temporary relief responses towards sustainable interventions that combine humanitarian assistance, social protection, protection from risks, economic empowerment, and legal, psychological, and social support.
As part of the response to the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of State for Relief, in coordination with their partners, are integrating the needs of women and women-headed households into humanitarian and social protection interventions. Cash assistance and other forms of support are being directed towards these households as a priority group, enabling them to meet their basic needs and cope with increasing living pressures. These efforts are accompanied by protection services, psychosocial support, case management, and referrals to specialized services.
Protection interventions also include the provision and support of shelter and protection centres for women and children facing risks or circumstances requiring protection and care. These centres provide a safer environment and connect shelter services with protection, case management, psychosocial support, referrals, and follow-up, as part of a response that addresses the different needs of women and children under the current humanitarian conditions.
Alongside emergency humanitarian and cash assistance, the two ministries emphasize the importance of gradually shifting towards economic empowerment interventions targeting women, particularly women breadwinners. This includes financing small-scale, income-generating projects to help women restore sustainable sources of livelihood, strengthen their ability to support their families, reduce dependence on assistance, and move from addressing immediate needs towards greater economic independence and long-term resilience.
In this context, the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of State for Relief call on United Nations agencies, international organizations, donors, and humanitarian partners to support a sustainable cash-transfer programme for women-headed households and provide targeted assistance packages that address women’s specific needs. They also call for funding to be allocated to economic empowerment programmes and income-generating projects for women, helping them secure the minimum requirements for a dignified life and providing a pathway towards restoring their livelihoods and achieving economic independence.
The two ministries further call for support for efforts to facilitate administrative and legal procedures, verify personal information, and issue replacement documents for women who have lost their official papers, in coordination with the competent authorities. They also call for support to expand shelter and protection centres and safe spaces for women and children, and to strengthen specialized protection and psychosocial support services, thereby providing a more comprehensive response to the needs of women and their families.
The two ministries affirm that supporting women who have assumed responsibility for providing for their families cannot be reduced to emergency humanitarian assistance. It requires an integrated approach that begins with protection, cash assistance, and access to basic necessities and extends to economic empowerment and sustainable income-generating opportunities. Such an approach is essential to preserving women’s dignity, strengthening their resilience and economic and social independence, and responding to the scale of the burdens and transformations imposed by the aggression on women and families in the Gaza Strip.
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MoSD: Protecting & Empowering Women Is Essential to Protecting Families and Strengthening Community Resilience
2.74 Million Women in Palestine; Ministry Prioritizes the Most Vulnerable Women and Female-Headed Households in Protection and Empowerment ProgrammesRamallah – On the occasion of Palestinian Women’s National Day, the Ministry of Social Development affirmed that protecting and empowering women constitute a fundamental pillar of the social protection system. The Ministry stressed that support for women should not be limited to responding to urgent needs, but should extend to strengthening their ability to make decisions, access services, and achieve greater independence and stability for themselves and their families. According to the latest data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), women account for approximately 49% of Palestine’s population, with 2.74 million women at the end of 2025, including approximately 1.69 million in the West Bank and 1.06 million in the Gaza Strip. These figures reflect women’s presence across all segments of society and their central role within families and in social and economic life. The Ministry stressed that the current realities facing Palestinian women are directly affected by worsening poverty, displacement, loss of income and housing, and increasing care and household responsibilities, particularly among women who have assumed full or partial responsibility for supporting their families. In the Gaza Strip, the war, displacement, and loss of family breadwinners have significantly changed women’s roles within households. According to PCBS data, the proportion of female-headed households increased from approximately 12% before the war to nearly 18% during September and October 2025, while 22,057 women lost their husbands, significantly increasing the care, financial, and protection responsibilities borne by thousands of women. The Ministry emphasized that these realities require a broader understanding of women’s needs as multiple and interconnected, encompassing protection from violence, psychosocial support, cash and food assistance, access to health and social services, and economic empowerment opportunities that help women regain greater independence and stability. It added that women who support their families require interventions that go beyond temporary assistance by linking protection with empowerment programmes that take into account household circumstances and needs and help women establish sustainable sources of income whenever conditions allow, while maintaining social safety nets during crises and emergencies. In the West Bank, including Jerusalem, women also face increasing pressures associated with poverty, declining incomes, movement restrictions, risks of losing their homes, difficulties accessing certain services, and care responsibilities within the family. These conditions require continued outreach to the most vulnerable women and strengthened protection and follow-up services. The Ministry affirmed that women with disabilities face additional challenges in accessing services, information, protection, and empowerment opportunities, requiring the provision of reasonable accommodations and the removal of barriers that may prevent them from exercising their rights and accessing services. The Ministry also stressed the priority of protecting women and girls from all forms of violence and strengthening case management, psychosocial support, referral, and specialized services, while ensuring privacy, safety, and continued follow-up according to the needs of each case. The Ministry noted that women’s caregiving responsibilities within the family are a significant aspect of their social reality, as many women care for children, older persons, persons with disabilities, and people with health conditions, alongside managing households and securing their daily needs. It emphasized that developing childcare, community-based care, and home-care services not only benefits those who require care but also provides direct support to women and caregivers and helps reduce some of the burdens borne by families. The Ministry stressed the importance of giving particular priority to women facing the greatest vulnerability, including female heads of households, displaced women, women with disabilities, women living in poverty, women in rural and marginalized areas, and women affected by violence or the loss of housing or income. It affirmed that, from a social protection perspective, economic empowerment does not simply mean providing a project or a temporary opportunity. Rather, it means helping women and their families gradually reduce dependence on assistance, strengthen their ability to withstand shocks, and achieve greater economic security. The Ministry of Social Development added that Palestinian Women’s National Day is an occasion to reaffirm that women’s needs must be integrated into the design of social protection programmes and humanitarian responses, and that interventions should be based on women’s actual circumstances and the realities of the families in which they live, rather than adopting a uniform approach that does not account for differences among groups and geographic areas. The Ministry reaffirmed its continued cooperation with national and international institutions and partners to develop protection, care, empowerment, and psychosocial support programmes, strengthen outreach to women most in need, and link different social services within an integrated pathway that responds to the needs of women and their families. The Ministry concluded by affirming that protecting and empowering Palestinian women means protecting families and strengthening their ability to withstand crises, and that building a fair and inclusive social protection system cannot be achieved without ensuring that women can access their rights, services, and opportunities with dignity and equity.
MoSD: Food Availability Is Not Enough If Families Cannot Access It or Afford Their Needs
1.4 Million People in Gaza Face Crisis or Worse Levels of Acute Food Insecurity, Including 212,000 in EmergencyRamallah – On the occasion of World Food Day, observed on 16 October, the Ministry of Social Development affirmed that the right to food is not fulfilled merely by the availability of commodities in markets or the entry of humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip. Rather, it requires families to have regular access to sufficient, diverse, safe, and nutritious food in a manner that protects health and dignity and prevents further deterioration in nutritional conditions. World Food Day 2026 is being observed under the theme “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow.” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) emphasizes that access to sufficient, diverse, and safe food requires innovative and inclusive solutions that protect food systems and ensure their sustainability for all. In the Gaza Strip, the latest projections from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicate that more than 1.4 million people, approximately 67% of the population, are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity between July and December 2026, including approximately 212,000 people in Emergency. The Ministry stressed that these figures demonstrate that the food crisis is no longer linked solely to food availability, but also to weakened purchasing power, the collapse of income sources, rising prices, irregular assistance, and families’ declining ability to compensate for shortages through markets. The IPC analysis also confirms that declining purchasing power, high commodity prices, and the inconsistent entry of humanitarian assistance and commercial goods continue to restrict people’s access to essential needs, while the recovery of local production and livelihoods remains limited. The Ministry explained that a family without income cannot fully benefit from food being available in the market, stressing that food security should be measured by the extent to which households can regularly afford their needs, rather than solely by the quantities of goods entering the Gaza Strip. The Ministry added that food quality and dietary diversity are also fundamental aspects of the crisis. Meeting minimum caloric requirements alone is insufficient if diets lack protein, vegetables, fruits, and essential nutrients, particularly for children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older persons, and people with health conditions. The Ministry emphasized the importance of diversifying response mechanisms to include food assistance, bread and meals, cash assistance, specialized nutrition interventions, and support for local markets, livelihoods, and food production whenever conditions allow. It also stressed the importance of cash assistance in situations where goods are available in markets, as it enables families to determine their own priorities and purchase the food they actually need, rather than relying entirely on a single food item or a predetermined assistance package. The Ministry affirmed that food interventions must also take into account the needs of the most vulnerable groups, particularly children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and people with health conditions who may require specialized food or food parcels adapted to their health needs. The Ministry noted that sustainably addressing the crisis also requires restoring sources of income, employment opportunities, and local production, as long-term dependence on humanitarian assistance cannot substitute for an economy capable of enabling families to meet their own needs. The Ministry of Social Development reaffirmed its continued efforts to monitor families’ needs and coordinate with international organizations and partners to direct resources toward the most vulnerable groups and link food interventions with the social protection system and household needs. The Ministry concluded by emphasizing that the right to food is not fulfilled when food merely reaches the border, warehouse, or market, but when families are able to put sufficient and diverse food on their tables in a manner that preserves their dignity. It stressed the need to continue assistance while simultaneously strengthening purchasing power and restoring livelihoods.
