Jenin, occupied West Bank – The war in Gaza is echoed in the violence unleashed in the occupied West Bank, especially in Jenin, the scene of almost daily Israeli raids. There, women suffer from the death of loved ones, harassment towards them or their families and difficulties in their professional, economic and psychosocial development. But in a context of pain and economic hardship, they claim their strength, their independence and their sense of community to bear the burden.
“I have to be strong”. “I want my children to be strong.” The statements resonate daily, like a baton, in the souls of Palestinian women. Since their peers in the 1920s, who protested against the 'Balfour Declaration' that established a Jewish “national home” in Palestine, they have been forced to develop resistance. To fight and survive a double occupation: that of the Israeli forces and that of machismo.
As he wakes up, Samah Bani Gharah That historical burden falls on him. “To be honest, sometimes I give up and tell myself I won't go to work. But I get ready and go out because it's like an obsession, a responsibility. What if there's an injured person that only I can get to, if someone needs to get safe in a house?”
In the occupied West Bank, everyone names the more than 30,700 civilians killed in Gaza at the hands of Israel. But October 7 It sharpened their own front, it brought them the war of the Israeli State, and “the difficulties” that already existed due to the occupation – raids, blockades, destruction and death -, Samah tells France 24, have only worsened in hot spots such as Jeninwhere it is increasingly risky to be a woman and a volunteer paramedic.
The abuse is no longer just verbal, it is also physical. They stopped me and hit me twice. A colleague was brutally beaten by the soldiers, who arrested him.
“Israeli forces terrorize us and threaten to shoot us“Paramedics are another target, and we must take longer paths to save the injured.”
Ambulances have fewer routes, destroyed by Israel both in the city and in the Jenin refugee camp. And even though they arrived on time, “the number of wounded is less than the number of dead, it is the technique now, there are many snipers,” denounces the 29-year-old girl. She orders the medical supplies and, at the same time, adds that she assists doctors or with bandages at the Ibn Sina hospital, and helps evacuate families.
But when a raid begins or there are explosions, her “greatest difficulty” is where to shelter her two children. “As a mother it is very difficult due to the large number of attacks and invasions. The first thing is to find a safe place for my children – Samah emphasizes – if the attack is close to home. The second thing is work on myself“.
There are two differences in the Palestinian landscape, patriarchal like the rest of societies: women do not wander like men on the street, they (partly due to the occupation) go to study, work, shop or have fun from point A to point B. But above all, they, active in all spheres, are the ones who speak and open themselves emotionally, without the belief that this weakens the Palestinian national cause.
“I take courses to have confidence and do the job. Although the scenes of horror and injuries, and the dead, those images stay forever. I force myself to forget to survive, the reality is that I can't… I show that I can in order to continue. If we want to live here, I only know that we must adapt to these conditions, and as a woman I do everything for my children, I want them to be strong and not be afraid,” shares Samah.
![Abeer Ghazawi shakes hands with Samah Bani Gharah as he welcomes her into his home in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on February 14, 2024.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/9ef245fa-dbe9-11ee-ba91-005056bf30b7/FOTO%20SALUDO%20SAMAH%20ABEER%20MUJERES%20PALESTINAS0.jpg)
A few blocks away, his two-year-old little boy has already learned to distinguish a shot from a bomb; while in the countryside with facades pockmarked by bullets, her neighbor Abeer Ghazawi She introduces herself as “mother of two martyrs” and admits: “I was always afraid that they would be hurt.”
She works in a kindergarten and like every woman she suffers from Israeli humiliation – from searches to soldiers at the door of her house – and the economic and social inequality of her gender. However, today she also suffers Being one of the mothers of the West Bank who have lost their children to Israeli firewhich has caused 420 deaths since October 7, a figure shot up in retaliation for the attacks by the Islamist group Hamas.
Their case, however, is particular: Basil, 18, and Mohammed, 24, were murdered in the hospital where Samah works, during a covert operation by Israeli forces, who entered on January 30 disguised as doctors and civilians and killed them while they slept. According to Israel, they were planning an attack inspired by the one in October because they were Islamic Jihad militants. Something inconceivable for his mother, who says that Basil, after being injured on October 25 by an Israeli drone, spent 27 days in intensive care, underwent several surgeries and in January he still could not move only his arms and legs.
“The news has turned them into 'evil terrorists'. One was incapacitated (Mohammed was sleeping next to him), and he was planning an attack? I know my children and they are not monsters. I wonder why they are accused like this?”
![Abeer Ghazawi talks next to a painting with photos of his two dead sons, Basil and Mohammed, in his home in the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, on February 14, 2024.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/6bdd3a84-dbea-11ee-a8f7-005056bf30b7/FOTO%20ABEER%20GHAZAWI%20MUJERES%20PALESTINAS0.jpg)
Abeer feels more at home in the cemetery than in his own. There he visits them every day, reads them some verses from the Koran and hears their responses. Somehow, he tries to cope with certain loose ends, such as the fact that the hospital has not spoken out or that the night before the Israeli operation Basil was forcibly moved to a room in a plant under construction.
Looking at the graves in the camp's third cemetery – created after the Israeli incursion of July 2023 and which already has at least 45 bodies – he states: “I am not the first nor the last Palestinian woman who has lost two children; Look at the graves, they are all of brothers. But I will continue for my daughter and my husband, I must be strong for them, I am afraid that they may die too.”
Palestinian women are known for being strong and patient. I will stay strong for my daughter, she is still young, I must be here for her.
Palestinian women say to themselves like a mantra that they have to “be strong”, and they are. But their strength grows in parallel to the injustices they sustain. As if that were not enough, to this we have just added a West Bank in economic crisis and unemployment, due to 7-O, the Israeli blockade and the denial of work permits in Israel. Without purchasing power, in Jenin most businesses have had to close, while “many families cannot afford even the most basic products.”
![A woman walks along one of the destroyed streets of the Jenin refugee camp and passes a wall with multiple bullet holes, in the occupied West Bank, on February 14, 2024.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/c1959b1a-dbea-11ee-91f2-005056a97e36/FOTO%20MUJER%20CAMINANDO%20JENIN%20MUJERES%20PALESTINAS0.jpg)
Samah's husband thus lost his job, and she lost two more as a cosmetics salesperson and a cook: “It is very difficult as a woman to find work now. The only ones that work are car wash businesses, mechanics, some restaurants… the People can't afford other luxuries. “My main income was in the makeup store, and it has affected me a lot, we can barely take care of our children.”.
Under the current state of war, the future of the Palestinians is totally uncertain. The only consolation is offered, despite everything, by Abeer, grateful that care comes from the collective, from women especially.
“When I am alone I feel weak and cry, but I thank God for the great family that this field is, we help each other and they don't leave me alone. Here women are independent, we all work, we do many things, shopping, raising children …we take care of each other.”
#Palestinian #woman #Jenin #daily #struggle #pain #violence