A Call to Global Conscience

Immediate global attention and accountability are required

This report serves as an urgent warning to the global community on behalf of The IWI: International Women’s Initiative. Throughout 2025, United Nations agencies, humanitarian actors, and human rights mechanisms documented a sustained and escalating pattern of violence against women and girls in Gaza, characterised by extreme female mortality, widespread gender-based violence (GBV), and the systematic erosion of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Evidence from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) GBV trend analyses, UN Women reporting, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) findings, Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) data, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates, and independent late-2025 and 2026 reporting indicates that these violations are prolonged, cumulative, and mutually reinforcing (Middle East Eye, 2026; OHCHR, 2025; OCHA, 2025; PCBS, 2025; UN Women, 2025; UNFPA, 2025a). These patterns raise serious concerns under CEDAW, particularly States’ obligations to prevent gender-based violence, protect women’s right to life and health, and ensure access to sexual and reproductive healthcare without discrimination (CEDAW, Articles 2 and 12; General Recommendations Nos. 19, 24, 30 and 35).

According to the Palestinian MoH, between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025, at least 10,417 women were killed and 23,769 injured, while overall civilian casualties exceeded 52,400 killed and 118,014 injured (MoH, cited in OHCHR, 2025; OCHA, 2025). UN Women reports that more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed since October 2023, underscoring the distinctly gendered impact of hostilities on the civilian population (UN Women, 2025). PCBS estimates that Gaza’s population has declined by approximately 6 percent, reflecting large-scale mortality, displacement, and demographic disruption (PCBS, 2025). The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls has characterised these patterns of harm as amounting to ‘femi-genocide’[i] referring to large-scale, gender-targeted killing and the systematic destruction of conditions necessary for women’s survival, including the denial of sexual and reproductive healthcare and the targeting of women as civilians (OHCHR, 2025). The large-scale killing of women and girls and the systematic denial of healthcare essential to women’s survival engage CEDAW Articles 2, 3, and 12, as elaborated in General Recommendations Nos. 19, 24, 30, and 35, which recognise gender-related killings and reproductive violence as severe forms of discrimination and gender-based violence.

The situation deteriorated further in the second half of 2025, with December marking a particularly acute escalation. Repeated attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and medical personnel documented during late November-December 2025 violate CEDAW Article 12, read together with Articles 2 and 5, and contravene CEDAW General Recommendations Nos. 24, 30, and 35, which require States to ensure women’s access to life-saving healthcare and protect services essential to sexual and reproductive health in conflict settings (Insecurity Insights, 2025). OHCHR reported that by mid-December 2025 approximately 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed, significantly increasing maternal mortality risks and contributing to sharp rises in miscarriages and untreated obstetric complications (OHCHR, 2025). Independent reporting and humanitarian assessments confirmed that winter storms and flooding submerged thousands of tents and makeshift shelters, while ongoing restrictions and blockages on humanitarian supplies and critically damaged infrastructure further restricted access to reproductive and maternal healthcare, particularly for displaced women and girls living in overcrowded camps and shelters (OCHA, 2025; UNRWA, 2025; Tasnim News Agency, 2025). Although some UN assessments indicated partial easing of famine conditions by late December, critical hunger, unsafe shelter, and severe shortages of medical supplies persisted, disproportionately affecting pregnant women, new mothers, and adolescent girls (OCHA, 2025).

Domestic and intimate partner violence increased throughout 2025 amid mass displacement, economic collapse, overcrowding, and the erosion of social and protection mechanisms. UNFPA GBV trend analyses consistently identified intimate partners and family members as the most frequently reported perpetrators, while emphasising that stigma, insecurity, and the absence of services likely result in significant underreporting (UNFPA, 2025a; UNFPA, 2025b). These forms of domestic violence have had direct and severe SRHR consequences, including forced pregnancy, reproductive coercion, miscarriage, untreated injuries, and maternal death, all exacerbated by the destruction of healthcare facilities and the unavailability of emergency obstetric care (OHCHR, 2025; UNFPA, 2025c).

In the first half of 2025, only approximately 17,000 births were recorded in Gaza, representing a 41 percent decline compared to 2022 levels. During the same period, more than 2,600 miscarriages and at least 220 pregnancy-related deaths prior to delivery were documented, alongside widespread neonatal complications including premature births, low birth weight, and increased neonatal intensive care admissions, despite the fact that the vast majority of hospitals were no longer functional (OHCHR, 2025; UNFPA, 2025c). The scale of maternal mortality, miscarriage, forced pregnancy, and denial of reproductive healthcare indicates serious breaches of CEDAW Article 12, which guarantees women’s right to health, including sexual and reproductive health, as elaborated by the Committee in General Recommendation No. 24 and reaffirmed in General Recommendation No. 30 on women in conflict-affected situations.

Survivor testimonies further illustrate the lived realities behind these figures. Women reported experiencing physical violence by intimate partners during displacement, resulting in miscarriages that could not be medically treated due to the destruction of hospitals (OHCHR, 2025). Others described sexual assault while fleeing bombardment, followed by an inability to access emergency reproductive or obstetric care, placing both their lives and pregnancies at risk (MIFTAH, 2025). Displaced mothers recounted escalating domestic abuse in overcrowded shelters, where stress, loss of livelihoods, and lack of privacy intensified violence, while the absence of GBV services left survivors without protection or support (UNFPA, 2025a). Multiple accounts documented reproductive coercion, including denial of contraception and pressure to continue pregnancies under life-threatening conditions, contributing to high-risk pregnancies, maternal complications, and neonatal harm (Middle East Eye, 2026; UNFPA, 2025b). These lived experiences reflect the cumulative and intersecting nature of discrimination prohibited under CEDAW, whereby conflict-related violence, domestic abuse, and denial of healthcare together undermine women’s rights to life, dignity, bodily autonomy, and equality.