The Palestine Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) highlighted the situation of women and girls in the Gaza Strip, with more than a million of them displaced since the start of the escalation in October, and their move to unbearably overcrowded shelters, where privacy is scarce or non-existent, especially for women and girls.

UNRWA said: For instance, the shelter in the agency’s Khan Yunis training center is one of the largest in southern Gaza, with 40,000 displaced people and 140 births recorded there since the beginning of the war. Overcrowding in Rafah means that more than 480 people share one toilet.

UNRWA Director of Media and Communications, Juliette Touma, said that while she was in Gaza last week, several women told me that they do not eat or drink not only because there is not enough for it, but also to limit the time they have to spend using dirty and unsanitary toilets.

Maysaa, assistant protection officer from the UNRWA protection team at the Khan Yunis training center, said that the team receives many requests from displaced women for sanitary pads. She stressed that the shortage and scarcity of these supplies in the local market have a psychological and physical impact on women.

In this regard, a young mother present at the center shares her experience, where she indicated that attempts to use temporary, home-made alternatives to sanitary pads negatively affect her health and well-being and that she is exposed to great embarrassment within her family and the displaced community

There are more than 690,000 women and adolescent girls of menstruating age in Gaza who need menstrual hygiene products, as well as access to clean water, toilets, and privacy.

The agency said that, unfortunately, UNRWA cannot meet the high demand for personal hygiene supplies, as stocks have either completely run out or reached very low levels. This scarcity puts women and girls at risk of reproductive and urinary tract infections and associated protection risks. The closure of most stores and pharmacies in Khan Yunis exacerbated this situation.

Dr. Nisreen, who works at the UNRWA health center serving the Khan Yunis Training Center shelter, said that the hygiene supplies distributed to women in the shelter do not include enough sanitary pads. She added: The scarcity of this product in the markets led to an increase in prices, making it difficult for displaced people to afford it.

UNRWA has distributed more than 80,000 family hygiene kits to displaced people in Gaza since the beginning of the war. The agency explained that it will be able to provide more of these supplies with support from the European Union, which has donated about 14 million euros so far to the displaced to provide support materials for shelters, including supplies such as personal hygiene supplies.

But UNRWA stressed that much more is needed to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, which is particularly acute among vulnerable women and girls.