RAMALLAH

Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Thursday that International Women's Day will be marked while Palestinian women “are living through the darkest days in the history” of the nation. 

He said Palestinian women are “mourning their loved ones, being killed, displaced, deprived of the most basic human rights, in full view and hearing of the world,” in a statement for International Women's Day on March 8.

“We remind the celebrants of this anniversary around the world and those praising women's rights that in Palestine, there are 9,000 martyred women in addition to tens of thousands of injured, orphaned, and nearly a million displaced, and hundreds of detainees,” said Shtayyeh.

“Let the Palestinian woman live on March 8 every day, with freedom, dignity, national independence, security, and safety, and let the double standards and the use of different measures fall,” he added.

The Gaza Strip's Media Office reported last Monday “the fall of 8,900 women martyrs due to the ongoing offensive for the past five months.”

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv said killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. 

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.​​​​​​​ 

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.  

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala