Women and girls must be at the heart of Gaza’s recovery

From the Palais des Nations in Geneva, UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action Sofia Calltorp urged the international community to turn Gaza’s fragile ceasefire into a recovery led by women and girls.

Geneva – As UN Women, in Gaza and across the world, we are in daily contact with women and girls whose voices must be heard... we have heard from so many women and girls across Gaza since the ceasefire began, a mix of fragile hope, deep exhaustion, and quiet strength. They see this ceasefire as a moment of hope, hard-won, fragile, and long overdue.

***

Some food, medicine, and water are entering Gaza. For many women and girls, for the first time in months, they can hope to seek care, receive aid, and sleep without the sound of airstrikes.

But hope, on its own, is not enough. The ceasefire may have paused the fighting, but it has not ended the crisis.

For two years, women and girls in Gaza were killed at a rate of roughly two every hour. This number only defines the scale of this war, and it will haunt our collective conscience for generations.

***

Today, the needs of women and girls in Gaza remain at an all-time high.

Over one million women and girls require food aid, and nearly a quarter million need urgent nutrition support. This ceasefire is our window to deliver fast, to stop famine where it has begun and prevent it where it looms.

Most women in Gaza have been displaced at least four times during the war. The ceasefire is their first chance to stop running, to find safety, to rebuild. But winter is coming, and too many still have no shelter.

In Gaza today, one in seven families is now led by a woman. They need aid that reaches them directly, so they can feed their children, access healthcare, rebuild livelihoods, and restore some stability after losing everything.

These numbers are not just statistics. They are stark reminders that there will be no recovery without the women and girls who have kept Gaza alive through famine, fear, and flight. Women and girls must be the architects of Gaza’s recovery. In every crisis, women have shown that when they are given the means, they turn survival into recovery and despair into rebuilding.

Gaza today is no exception.

***

For more than a decade, UN Women has been working in Gaza with women-led and women’s rights organizations. Many of them never stopped, even on the darkest days. They kept providing care, protection, and hope. Every woman who rebuilds a bakery, a clinic, or a classroom, is rebuilding peace. Every dollar invested in women-led aid, is a down payment on hope. The data is very clear on this: when we invest in women, every $1 generates an $8 return for whole communities.

Because it’s not just about getting aid in and who it reaches, it is also about how we deliver it. If we do not put the humanitarian needs of women and girls at the center, and if we do not include women’s organizations in the response, in recovery, and in the work of rebuilding, then women will be excluded from the future of Gaza altogether.

***

All parties must uphold the ceasefire agreement, fully and without delay. Member States must step up funding now. If we are true about hope, we must act on it. If we are true about peace, we must resource it through women.

***

The full statement by Sofia Calltorp, UN Women's Chief of Humanitarian Action, is available at the UN Women Media Centre. You can watch the full statement at the UNOG Multimedia Newsroom.