The impact of Gaza's humanitarian crisis on marginalised groups (women, children and persons with disabilities), 7 October 2023 – 15 June 2025

Introduction:

On 7 October 2023, several thousand Palestinian fighters of the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched an attack across the northern and eastern borders of the Gaza Strip, targeting the Israeli villages adjacent to the border. The attack left 1,300 Israelis dead and 236 hostages taken into the Gaza Strip. Two days after the incident, Israel imposed a total closure on the Strip, with the Israeli defence minister declaring at the time: “No electricity, no food, no fuel — everything is forbidden. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.” From the first day, Israel defined its policies toward the population of the Gaza Strip through collective punishment, dehumanisation, and starvation. Statements against Gaza's civilian population were issued by Israeli officials, particularly the finance minister and the minister of national security, who play an important role in managing the war on the Strip. Israel waged a ferocious military campaign on Gaza in the first week after 7 October, its heavy strikes targeting military and government sites, farmland, and civilian homes, and then launched a ground invasion that continues to this day — leaving more than 54,000 Palestinians dead, some 150,000 wounded, and thousands more missing beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, producing grave human suffering from the continuing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

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