Gaza conflict exposes systemic gendered violence amid settler-colonial militarisation and global complicity

Palestinian women’s resistance, rooted in traditions like sumud (steadfastness) and communal care, has sustained communities under decades of blockade and occupation. Indigenous feminist frameworks, such as those from the Global South, highlight how militarisation targets women’s reproductive labour and cultural transmission as acts of erasure. The erasure of these knowledge systems in mainstream narratives reflects a colonial epistemology that dismisses non-Western ways of knowing as 'backward' or irrelevant to 'modern' conflict resolution.

The gendered toll in Gaza is a continuation of Israel’s settler-colonial project since 1948, where displacement, land seizures, and militarised violence have long targeted Palestinian women’s bodies and families. Historical parallels include the 1948 Nakba, where sexual violence was weaponised to terrorise communities, and the 2008-2009 assault on Gaza, where UN data showed 52% of 1,400 killed were women and children. The current crisis mirrors patterns seen in other colonial conflicts, from Algeria to Vietnam, where occupying forces used gendered violence to break resistance.

Latin American feminist movements, such as those in Chiapas, have framed militarisation as a gendered tool of control, linking land dispossession to violence against women. African feminist scholars like Amina Mama argue that colonialism’s legacy in Palestine mirrors patterns in Congo or Sudan, where extractive violence and sexualised brutality are systemic tools of domination. In South Asia, women’s resistance in Kashmir and Northeast India shows how occupation forces use sexual violence to assert control, echoing Gaza’s dynamics.

Studies from the Lancet and UN Women confirm that in conflict zones, women and girls face disproportionate mortality due to healthcare collapse, displacement, and gender-based violence. Research on Gaza’s 2014 war showed that 80% of pregnant women suffered complications due to restricted access to healthcare, a pattern likely repeating in 2023-24. The weaponisation of starvation and denial of medical aid violates international humanitarian law, yet enforcement mechanisms remain toothless.

Palestinian artists like Larissa Sansour and Emily Jacir use film and photography to document the gendered erasure of Palestinian women, framing their bodies as sites of both trauma and resistance. In Sufi traditions, the concept of 'ishq (divine love) as resistance' mirrors Palestinian women’s endurance, where suffering becomes a form of spiritual defiance. Indigenous Palestinian embroidery (tatreez) and oral histories preserve narratives of resilience that mainstream media ignores.

If current trends continue, Gaza’s women and girls will face long-term health crises, including PTSD, reproductive health complications, and economic disenfranchisement, with intergenerational trauma deepening. Scenario modelling suggests that without structural change—ending the blockade, demilitarisation, and reparations—Gaza’s society will fragment further, with women’s leadership marginalised in post-war reconstruction. Alternative futures require decolonial peacebuilding, where women’s rights are central to transitional justice.

Palestinian feminist collectives like Women’s Affairs Center and Palestinian Feminist Collective centre women’s voices in resistance, yet their analyses are sidelined in Western media. Queer and disabled Palestinian women face compounded erasure, with their specific needs ignored in aid frameworks. Global South feminists, such as those in South Africa’s feminist movements, have condemned Western complicity in Israel’s violence, yet their critiques are rarely amplified.