Gaza’s displaced women and girls face severe danger of physical and sexual violence, the UN has warned.Overcrowding in shelters, coupled with “increased stress levels” among refugees due to a lack of food, water and privacy, has “created increased gender based violence (GBV) risks,” a spokesperson for the United Nations Population Fund said.Women and girls are also vulnerable to sexual harassment and violence “while travelling to and lining up for hours to use wash facilities including water points, water distribution sites, and sanitation facilities that are limited in number, and located far from where they are seeking shelter,” the spokesperson added.Outside of war, Gaza has long suffered from high rates of gender-based violence. In March 2022, the UN said that 37.5 per cent of married (or previously married) women in Gaza between the ages of 18 and 64 had experienced violence in the previous 12 months.And according to 2019 data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 41 per cent of women in Gaza had been subjected to domestic violence.
This is a problem throughout the Arab world. In Egypt, for example, 99.3% of girls and women surveyed reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime. 82.6% did not feel safe or secure in the street. 86.5% don't feel safe on public transportation.
But when it happens in neighboring Gaza, suddenly the Jews are at fault. The Lancet has blamed Israel for Gaza men beating their wives, using a very flawed methodology. UNRWA has made that same claim, as has the UN.
Yet violence in Palestinian society is endemic. Here are results from 2019 about how prevalent violence against children under 12 is.
The Telegraph didn't quite blame Israel for gender-based violence that is expected or already happening in Gaza, but it is setting the stage.
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