With a lack of clothes, Gaza’s women face a brutal, cold winter

For Palestinian women in the besiegedGaza Strip, the tragedies of Israel’s seemingly endless genocidal war that has killed or injured nearly 200,000 people has also impacted other aspects of their very personal lives. 

Over a year since Israel launched its war on the coastal enclave, the Palestinian women in Gaza lost their privacy because they are forced to live in dilapidated tents that do not protect them from the harsh summer or cold winter.

Speaking to The New Arab, various Palestinian women living in Gaza spoke of the challenges arising from the lacks of all requirements of a decent life. Not only has Israel’s destruction and killings aggravated their burdens, the women also have to contend with the lack of basic needs, such as hygiene products and even clothing like underwear. 

In addition to launching a war, the Israeli army has also sealed off all of Gaza’s borders, preventing and restricting commercial products and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, home to more than 2.3 million people. 

Resorting to summer clothes for winter 

For the second year in a row, Palestinian women are forced to contend against a cold winter with summer clothes. 

“Unfortunately, we got rid of all of our clothes when we were forced to displace and leave our houses,” Huda Naim, a Palestinian woman displaced to Khan Younis, told TNA. 

The 42-year-old mother of four fled her home located in the town of Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza a year ago, and she has been displaced from one place to another to avoid the Israeli attacks. Currently, she lives with her family in a temporary tent established in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis City near the beach.

“Day by day, the weather became colder, and I do not have enough clothes to at least get some warmth,” the middle-aged woman said. “We left our homes without being able to take any of our personal belongings. I thought that we would only be out for a few hours and then return, which prevented me from taking anything except for identification papers.”

“But I discovered that our migration is long, and I do not know if we will return to our homes again,” she said, her hands shaking from the cold.

“I have been wearing a prayer dress for more than a year and I have another one. But both dresses are worn out, and I don’t know what to do if they become unusable. There are no clothes on the market at a reasonable price, and I don’t have enough money to buy them. My children deserve more money than me to buy them food,” she added. 

Sanaa Nasser, another Palestinian displaced woman from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, who now lives in one of the Mawasi tents in Khan Younis after the Israeli army bombed her home, is struggling over adequate clothing too. The 35-year-old mother of five wears her prayer clothes all the time, even though they do not keep her warm.

“Because of the war, we lost everything. In previous winters, we used to buy everything we needed and keep up with fashion, but now we have become homeless women who are helpless and do not know how to face the cold winter,” she remarked to TNA, her clothes visibly worn and torn. 

“Instead of buying new clothes, I resorted to sewing them and repairing them, but now they are no longer even suitable for sewing,” she added.

“Over the past few months, some women have been wearing the same hijab,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini tweeted on X with regard to this issue.

Israeli soldiers wearing women’s clothing

Since the start of the Israeli army’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers have commonly shared photos on social media of themselves wearing women’s clothing in Palestinian homes.

Underwear, winter clothes, and traditional folkloric clothing were among the clothes worn by Israeli soldiers in a scene that provoked the feelings of Palestinians in general, and in particular, women.

Hind, who preferred to remain anonymous, told TNA she wished she died rather than saw her clothes worn by an Israeli soldier. 

“I left my closet full of clothes while I cannot get any of them back to wear now, nor can I provide clothes for my children who shiver from the cold all day long,” she said. 

“[Israeli soldiers] really upset me when I saw them grabbing my clothes and making fun of us while I was suffering from the severe cold because I had no clothes,” Hind added.

Before Israel’s war, about 500 trucks entered Gaza every day carrying a mix of commercial imports, such as food, building materials, agricultural supplies and humanitarian aid supervised by UN organisations.

However, since the war, Israel has completely banned the import of humanitarian goods and supplies, leaving only a few trucks carrying small amounts of food to pass through, which do not meet the needs of Gaza‘s population.