October 26 Marks Palestinian Women’s National Day: Voices of Courage Amid Genocide

Original article: 26 de octubre, Día Nacional de la Mujer Palestina: Voces de valentía en medio del genocidio

By Vera Baboun, Ambassador of Palestine in Chile

October 26 is celebrated as Palestinian Women’s National Day. Over the past two years, the human toll on Palestinian women in Gaza and the West Bank has highlighted the gendered core of the ongoing genocide and occupation.

In Gaza alone, more than 68,234 Palestinians have been killed—among them 33,000 women, 20,179 children, and 4,813 elderly individuals—while 10,000 remain missing and 170,373 have been injured, with 70% of them being women and children.

According to the World Health Organization, 42,000 Palestinians have sustained life-altering injuries, 5,000 have had amputations, and a quarter of the injured are children. Entire families have been wiped out—an average of 10 parents killed daily during the initial months of the war—while 273 journalists, including 24 women, were deliberately attacked.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, systematic aggression has resulted in 1,056 Palestinian deaths, including 210 children, and left over 9,000 injured.

Since October 2023, over 1.93 million Palestinians, predominantly women and children, have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Gaza—many multiple times—while 1.5 million are now living without adequate shelter as winter approaches. In the West Bank, at least 50,000 Palestinians, mostly from Bedouin villages and refugee camps, have been expelled from their lands.

Hunger has become a weapon of war: 250,000 women and girls are facing starvation, while another 500,000 are experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger. More than 132,000 children and 55,500 pregnant or nursing women are suffering from acute malnutrition, with 41,000 children in severe famine.

However, Palestinian women in Gaza are not merely witnesses to war; they are the living soul of Palestine, its heartbeat that never ceases. In every destroyed home and in every corner shrouded in dust and pain, there is a woman who wipes her tears with one hand and rebuilds life with the other.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian women endure another cruel form of occupation. With a rise in daily attacks from settlers and occupying forces, women’s lives have become a constant path of humiliation and fear. They face body searches and insults at military checkpoints, arbitrary detentions, and physical and psychological violence, while many are prevented from reaching hospitals, workplaces, or universities.

In rural areas and Bedouin communities, families are forced to abandon their lands under the threat of demolition or confiscation, leaving women homeless and without livelihood. Human rights organizations have documented numerous cases where Israeli soldiers have inflicted violence against pregnant women or during nighttime raids, in blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law.

Women in cities such as Hebron, Nablus, and Jenin live under daily siege and military incursions, paying a double price: as mothers, prisoners, and survivors of the loss of children and husbands.

The Israeli occupation has turned the body of Palestinian women into a battlefield: a space of control, humiliation, and resistance. Yet, the women of Palestine refuse to disappear. Despite the devastation, one truth remains steadfast: no force can match the power of a woman who loves her country, and in Palestine, each one is living proof of that.

Women are not just surviving; they are rebuilding from the ruins. Each woman who reopens a bakery, a clinic, or a school is helping to reconstruct peace. Loving their homeland under occupation is a declaration that, even when the world turns away, they will not relinquish their dignity or their duty. Palestinian women embody that love in silence, with the unwavering strength of those who nurture and resist. They carry within them the spirit of a nation that bleeds, yet refuses to die. As long as they remain steadfast and unbreakable, Palestine will live, for no army or wall can overcome the love of a woman who belongs to her land and believes that one day her children will walk free upon it.

On this Palestinian Women’s National Day, the call is clear and deeply political: the world must uphold United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and its obligations to protect women in times of conflict. The international community must end impunity, investigate war crimes, and hold perpetrators accountable. Silence is complicity; neutrality is a moral failure.

As long as a single Palestinian woman continues to breathe, teach, care, or create, Palestine will remain alive.

By Vera Baboun, Ambassador of Palestine in Chile.-