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.