Amnesty International Says Women and Girls in Gaza Face Intensifying Humanitarian and Health Risks

Last updated: 22 September 2026

On March 10, 2026, Amnesty International published a report examining the specific impact of the war in Gaza on Palestinian women and girls, arguing that they are facing layered and increasingly severe harms as displacement, restrictions onaid, and the collapse of healthcare continue. The article says the crisis has affected nearly every aspect of women’s lives, from pregnancy and childbirth to cancer treatment, access to clean water, and the basic conditions needed for safety, privacy, and recovery.

According to the report, Amnesty International links these harms to what it describes as Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and to policies that, in its view, have deliberately imposed life-threatening conditions on the civilian population. The organization says women are experiencing the effects in especially acute ways through mass displacement, the breakdown of reproductive, maternal, and newborn healthcare, the interruption of treatment for chronic illnesses such as cancer, and increased exposure to disease, hunger, and undignified living conditions.

A significant part of the article is based on Amnesty’s field research carried out between February 5 and February 24, 2026. During that period, the organization says it interviewed 41 internally displaced women, including eight cancerpatients, four pregnant women, and 14 women who gave birth after the so-called ceasefire. It also interviewed 26 healthcare workers across six healthcare facilities in Gaza City and Deir al-Balah, as well as four staff members ofinternational organizations. Amnesty uses these interviews to present the report not only as a political statement, but also as a document grounded in direct testimony from patients, medical workers, and aid personnel.

The article places these findings within a wider humanitarian picture. Amnesty says that between the signing of the October 2025 ceasefire and the end of February 2026, Gaza’s Health Ministry recorded the killing of 630 Palestinians, including 202 children and 89 women, on top of the more than 72,000 people reported killed since October 7, 2023. At the same time, the organization notes that hunger remains acute, displacement is still widespread, and much of Gaza remainsinaccessible or uninhabitable because of destruction and continued military control over large areas.

One of the central themes of the report is the collapse of maternal and neonatal healthcare. Amnesty says women’s access to sexual and reproductive care has been severely undermined by bombardment, repeated displacement, thedestruction of health infrastructure, and restrictions on the entry of medical supplies and hygiene items. Citing the World Health Organization and the health cluster, the article states that almost 60% of health service points are non-functional, placing intense pressure on the facilities that remain open. It also says that around 46% of essential medicines remain at zero stock, including medicines related to labor, postpartum hemorrhage, infections, anesthesia, pain relief, and respiratoryconditions.

The report adds that the consequences are visible in hospitals and neonatal units. Amnesty says medical workers described an exponential rise in maternal and neonatal complications over the last 29 months, including pre-term births, lowbirth weight, malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women, pre-partum anxiety, post-partum depression, and respiratory problems affecting both mothers and newborns. It also cites UNFPA data saying neonatal units in Gaza areoperating at 150–170% capacity, with some incubators being shared by up to three newborns. At one hospital in Gaza City, Amnesty reports, there were 12 incubators, six of them for neonatal intensive care, but none had the requiredcardiorespiratory monitors.

Amnesty further argues that these medical problems are inseparable from the conditions in which women are now living. The report says many pregnant and breastfeeding women in displacement sites in Gaza City, Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah, and Nuseirat camp had only sporadic antenatal care and struggled to obtain nutritional supplements, hygiene products, clean drinking water, and household water. It notes that some women had lost substantial weight, been diagnosedwith malnutrition or anaemia, and were trying to carry pregnancies to term while living in tents exposed to cold weather, rain, smoke from burning plastic, and overcrowded makeshift toilets.

The article also stresses the emotional and social burden carried by women. Amnesty says many women are trying to recover from childbirth, care for infants, and support their families while also coping with bereavement, repeated displacement, and the loss of homes, income, and support networks. A senior midwife cited in the report describes the particular difficulty of assisting mothers who have lost husbands or relatives and must continue caring for babies while they themselves are inurgent need of psychological and material support. Amnesty presents this as evidence that the crisis is not only medical, but also deeply social and psychological.

Another major section of the report concerns interrupted cancer treatment and medical evacuations. Amnesty says that more than 18,500 Palestinians in Gaza require urgent medical treatment unavailable in the territory, while medicalevacuations to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been almost entirely prohibited since October 7, 2023. It notes that after the partial reopening of the Rafah crossing on February 2, 2026, the UN and partner organizationssupported the evacuation of 289 Palestinians and their families through Rafah and Kerem Shalom, but says the process has remained heavily obstructed by Israeli restrictions and delays. The report adds that this process stopped altogether withthe start of the joint US-Israeli offensive on Iran, further reducing already limited routes for treatment abroad.

Female cancer patients are presented as among the groups most severely affected. Amnesty says all eight women cancer patients it interviewed reported disrupted treatment because of shortages of supplies, including chemotherapy drugs, and because hospitals had to prioritize urgent trauma cases during periods of heavy bombardment. The organization says there is currently no hospital in Gaza offering radiation therapy, and that there is not one functioning MRI machinein theterritory. It also cites OCHA as confirming that some laboratory and imaging equipment has been classified by Israeli authorities as “dual-use” and barred from entering Gaza.

The report connects these medical problems to wider restrictions on humanitarian access. Amnesty says that on February 27, Israel’s Supreme Court temporarily froze the implementation of a government decision suspending the operations of 37 de-registered international aid organizations working in the occupied Palestinian territory. However, it says uncertainty over aid access continued. The article also notes that on February 28 Israel closed all three operational crossings into Gazaafter launching a joint attack on Iran with the United States, halting the already limited flow of aid, commercial supplies, and medical evacuations. Although Kerem Shalom was reopened on March 3 for the gradual entry of humanitarian aid, the Rafah crossing with Egypt remained closed.

Amnesty argues that these restrictions fall especially heavily on women and girls because they are closely tied to food security, reproductive care, newborn care, and the daily labor of keeping families alive under crisis conditions. The report sayswomen are often the ones trying to secure water, food, warmth, medicine, and basic hygiene while caring for children, older relatives, and the injured. It also notes that women-led organizations and aid groups providing maternal, neonatal, andgender-based violence services are operating under extreme pressure, and that their work would be difficult to replace within Gaza’s already damaged health system.

In its concluding section, Amnesty calls for the removal of what it describes as unlawful and arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian aid, medicine, medical equipment, and medical evacuations. It says Israel should allow the entry of diagnostic andlaboratory equipment, ensure reliable evacuation routes both inside and outside the occupied Palestinian territory, and permit humanitarian organizations to operate freely and safely. The article also urges other states to apply diplomatic andeconomic pressure to help end the crisis and support women’s health, safety, and economic and social rights in Gaza.

Conclusion

The Amnesty International report presents the situation of women and girls in Gaza as a concentrated example of how war, displacement, collapsing healthcare, and aid restrictions can combine into a broader humanitarian crisis. It suggests thatthe issue has drawn particular attention because pregnancy, childbirth, chronic illness, and caregiving all become more dangerous when essential systems fail. In a wider context, the article frames women’s experience in Gaza as central tounderstanding the long-term civilian cost of the conflict.