On the Occasion of International Women’s Day ICSPR This year represents a resounding moral failure of the international human rights system, which stands powerless to protect Palestinian women from the Israeli war machine

Date: 8 March 2026
Original Language: Arabic

Press Release

On the Occasion of International Women’s Day

ICSPR This year represents a resounding moral failure of the international human rights system, which stands powerless to protect Palestinian women from the Israeli war machine.

Today, Sunday, March 8, marks International Women’s Day, which was recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 1977 as a day for women’s rights and international peace—a day on which women around the world celebrate their achievements and struggles.

However, this day comes for Palestinian women—particularly women in the Gaza Strip—while they are engaged in an existential struggle that goes beyond traditional rights-based demands and reaches the fundamental right to life and safety. While the world raises slogans of “justice and rights for all,” Palestinian women are living through one of the most destructive and bloody realities in modern history. Amid the rubble of homes and shattered dreams, Palestinian women stand steadfast, embodying an extraordinary legend of resilience in the face of one of the most brutal war machines known in contemporary history.

Catastrophic Reality and Grave Violations

The International Commission (ICSPR) is monitoring with deep concern and sorrow the unprecedented deterioration in the conditions of women in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian women are subjected to violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including:

1. Direct targeting and killing:
The Commission has documented the killing of 12,316 women out of a total of 48,346 martyrs, while women and children constitute nearly 70% of the injured (111,759 wounded) and 70% of those missing under the rubble.

2. Forced displacement and loss:
Thousands of widows and displaced women are living in tents lacking the most basic standards of human dignity. They bear the burden of supporting entire families amid severe food and water insecurity.

3. Loss of family support:
Palestinian mothers—especially in Gaza—often stand as the sole witnesses to the annihilation of entire families. Estimates indicate that more than 10,000 mothers have lost their children or entire families in direct attacks, turning the lives of surviving mothers into a difficult journey in search of lost safety.

4. Total collapse of the healthcare system:
Pregnant women face the risk of death due to the absence of medical care, the performance of cesarean operations without anesthesia, and shortages of milk and nutritional supplements—threatening the lives of an entire generation of newborns.

5. Malnutrition:
Approximately 177,000 women suffer from life-threatening health risks. Mothers are often forced to give up their scarce food rations for their children, resulting in widespread severe anemia among pregnant and breastfeeding women.

6. Violations of privacy and dignity:
Displaced women suffer from the loss of privacy and lack of sanitation and hygiene necessities, leading to the widespread spread of skin diseases and infectious illnesses.

The situation of women in the West Bank is no less severe, as they face policies of repression, siege, and daily incursions:

1. Arrests and female prisoners:
The occupation is currently detaining at least 56 Palestinian female prisoners in its prisons (Megiddo, Ofer, and Damon) under degrading conditions. They are subjected to systematic torture, strip searches, deprivation of health necessities, solitary confinement, long-term denial of communication with their families or lawyers, and the denial of winter clothing as a tool to break their will.

2. Field violence:
Since the beginning of 2025, Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 26 women in the West Bank, alongside a sharp escalation in physical assaults at military checkpoints and during home raids.

3. Economic and social siege:
Thousands of women have lost their sources of livelihood due to closure policies, in addition to house demolitions that leave hundreds of mothers and girls homeless, exposed to cold and displacement.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) extends its deep respect and appreciation to the struggle and sacrifices of Palestinian women. While the world raises the slogan “Rights, Equality, and Empowerment” on International Women’s Day, the Commission affirms that this year represents a profound moral failure of the international system, which has been unable to protect the most basic right of Palestinian women—the right to life. While the world debates “gender gaps,” women in Gaza are struggling simply to survive a systematic campaign of killing targeting their very existence.

Accordingly, we affirm and demand the following:

1. ICSPR calls on the international community and the UN Security Council to take immediate action to establish a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and to stop the bloodshed for which women and girls are paying the highest price.

2. ICSPR calls on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to accelerate its investigations into crimes committed against women and to recognize the systematic targeting of women as an integral part of the crime of genocide.

3. ICSPR urges UN agencies, particularly UN Women, to move beyond merely “expressing concern” and begin providing real field protection and specialized relief for women and girls in displacement centers.

4. ICSPR calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as international health and humanitarian organizations, to fulfill their obligations and ensure the immediate delivery of medical assistance and essential supplies for women and girls to the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and the West Bank, in order to prevent an imminent health and humanitarian catastrophe.

5. ICSPR calls on international women’s organizations to break their silence and take firm positions against the “gender-based genocide” practiced by Israel, and to activate campaigns of boycott and accountability.

6. ICSPR calls on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to fulfill its legal and moral duty by visiting female prisoners, documenting the grave violations they face, and pressing for their release.

Finally, international silence regarding the targeting of Palestinian women is not merely political failure—it is complicity that legitimizes the destruction of the Palestinian family and its core foundation.