'Broken': Domestic violence impacts women, children in Gaza (trigger warning)
‘Broken’: Domestic violence impacts women, children in Gaza (trigger warning)
As Israel continues its relentless bombardment of Gaza, cases of domestic violence have rocketed. Experts fear women and children will never recover.
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Palestinian women comfort each other at a funeral for adults and children killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in Deir el-Balah, May 31, 2024 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
By Ruwaida Amer
Published On 25 Dec 202425 Dec 2024
Khan Younis, Gaza – The face of Samar Ahmed, 37, shows clear signs of exhaustion. It is not just because she has five children, nor that they have been displaced several times since the start of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza 14 months ago and are now living in cramped, cold conditions in a makeshift tent in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. Samar is also a victim of domestic violence and has no way to escape her abuser in the cramped conditions of this camp.Two days ago, her husband beat her around the face leaving her with a swollen cheek and a blood spot in her eye. Her eldest daughter clung to her all night following that attack, which happened in front of the children. Samar does not want to break up her family – they have already been forced to move from Gaza City, to the Shati camp in Rafah and now to Khan Younis – and the children are young. Her eldest, Laila, is just 15. She also has 12-year-old Zain, 10-year-old Dana, Lana, seven, and Adi, five, to think about.
On the day that Al Jazeera visits her, she is trying to keep her two younger girls occupied with schoolwork. Sitting together in the small tent, which is made from rags, the three have spread out some notebooks around them. Little Dana is huddled up close to her mother, seemingly wanting to give her support. Her younger sister is crying from hunger and Samar seems at a loss as to how to help them both. As a displaced family, the loss of privacy has added a whole new layer of pressure. “I lost my privacy as a woman and a wife in this place. I don’t want to say that my life was perfect before the war, but I was able to express what was inside me in conversation with my husband. I could scream without anyone hearing me,” Samar says. “I could control my children more in my home. Here, I live in the street and the cover of concealment has been removed from my life.”
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Palestinian women and children sit in a makeshift tent next to the rubble of a house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2024 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
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Gaza displacement
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Women who have been displaced multiple times are living under intense pressure in extremely difficult circumstances [File: Enas Rami/AP]
‘The war did this to us’
Later on, Samar’s husband, Karim Badwan, 42, sits beside his daughters, crammed inside the small tent they are living in. He is despairing. “This is not a life. I can’t comprehend what I’m living. I’m trying to adapt to these difficult circumstances, but I cannot. I’ve turned from a practical and professional man into a man who gets so angry all the time.” Karim says he is deeply ashamed that he has hit his wife on several occasions since the war began.“I hope the war ends before my wife’s energy runs out and she leaves me,” he says. “My wife is a good woman, so she tolerates what I say.” A tear rolls down Samar’s bruised face as she listens.
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Gaza displaced
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Palestinian women and children who fled their homes due to Israeli attacks, shelter in a tent camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 24, 2023 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
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Gaza displaced
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Palestinian women and children queue for bread in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 28, 2024 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
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Women and children stand nearby while people bury the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks at a mass grave in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 7, 2024 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
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Nevin al-Barbari, 35, a psychologist, says it is impossible to give children in Gaza the support they need in these conditions.
“Unfortunately, what children are experiencing during the war cannot be described. They need very long psychological support sessions. Hundreds of thousands of children have lost their homes, lost a family member, and many of them have lost their entire family.” Being forced to live in difficult – and sometimes violent – family circumstances has made life immeasurably worse for many.
“There is very clear and widespread family violence among the displaced in particular … Children’s psychological and behavioural states have been affected very negatively. Some children have become very violent and hit other children violently.”
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It will be a long road to recovery for these children, al-Barbari says. “There are no schools to occupy them. Children are forced to bear great responsibilities, filling water and waiting in long lines for food aid. There are no recreational areas for them. “There are so many stories that we do not know about, that these children are living every day.”
Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/25/i-am-broken-the-women-enduring-domestic-violence-amid-israel-war-on-gaza#ixzz8vjxEQkMA
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/25/i-am-broken-the-women-enduring-domestic-violence-amid-israel-war-on-gaza