Domestic Violence Tears Gaza’s War-Hit Families Apart

This article is published in collaboration with Egab, a platform empowering journalists from the Middle East and Africa to publish stories in international media outlets.

GAZA — Marwa, a 33-year-old mother of five, lives in a tent in Deir al-Balah, about 8.7 miles south of Gaza City, after being displaced from Beit Lahia in Northern Gaza in October 2023. She first moved to Jabalia, then to the Al Nasr area in Khan Younis, and finally to Deir al-Balah, which has become a sprawling tent city. 

“My life before the war was stable,” she says. Now she lives in a 70-square-foot tent amid a sea of crowded tents, where she has to walk at least one mile and queue for hours to use a public restroom serving hundreds of people.

She has been married to her husband, Amjad, for over 13 years, but doesn’t recognize him anymore, she says while holding back tears. “We argue more than 15 times a day; sometimes, he hurts me. This war destroyed us,”

Jamila, 22, who has been married for two years, says that her husband has become more abusive.

“He throws things or beats me violently if I refuse intimacy,” says Jamila, revealing blue and purple bruises on her arms. The mother of two has no other family to turn to because her only brother was killed in an Israeli air strike in June.

But Marwa and Jamila are not isolated cases.

More to Her Story spoke with 11 women across Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans are internally displaced. Among them, 10 told More to Her Story that they have recently experienced violence or abuse from their husbands. The testimonies of these women underscore a significant but overlooked impact of this conflict.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, the de-facto governing authority in Gaza, launched an attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of over 200 hostages. In response, Israel’s retaliation over the past 13 months has killed over 43,300 Palestinians, of which over 70 percent are women and children. But the repercussions of this protracted war have extended far beyond the immediate physical devastation, seeping deep into the personal lives of the survivors, as the ongoing struggle has strained the very fabric of marital relationships.

“The impact of the war on marital dynamics is profound and multifaceted,” says psychologist and social worker Majida Al-Belbisi. “Gaza’s social fabric was torn apart by the war. Family stability no longer exists. Because there are few outlets to vent this frustration, there has been an increase in domestic strife and, in many cases, violence.”

According to the National Institute of Health, armed conflict is increasingly associated with higher rates of intimate partner violence, with domestic and gender-based violence often surging, as seen in Ukraine, Sudan, and elsewhere.

Domestic violence rates across Gaza were already high before the war broke out. But the ongoing conditions of war, compounded by the increasingly limited avenues to distribute aid, have increased the risk of violence for women and girls. Over the past year, UNRWA responded to 1,565 survivors of domestic violence in Gaza, and advocates maintain there is no infrastructure to further monitor and respond to these incidents.

Marwa remembers how she used to live in an apartment in Beit Lahia in North Gaza.

“My children had their own rooms. But today, I have to walk long distances just to use the bathroom," says Marwa. “I die a little every day from the life imposed on us. My husband isn't well either, and he takes out his anger on me with constant yelling and insults,”

But like many others, Marwa feels she has no choice but to endure her husband’s behavior as they struggle to survive, often cut off from the safety net of their close and extended families who are displaced elsewhere across Gaza.

Amna, 35, used to live in the Daraj neighborhood of North Gaza but was forced to flee first to Nuseirat, then to Deir Al-Balah, where she lives in a small tent with her husband and three children, the youngest of whom was born six months after the offensive on October 7, 2023, upended their lives.

“I cry every day and curse my luck for bringing a child into this world during a war,” she says. “He needs milk and diapers, and when I ask my husband, he gets angry,”

This constant search for food, water, and shelter has taken an exceptional toll on her husband, Mahmoud, who says he regrets losing his temper.

“I don't mean to get angry at my wife,” says Mahmoud, 45. “But we’re dying slowly of hunger, cold, and bombs falling on all sides,”

Sanaa, a 26-year-old mother of two who has been married for five years, was displaced from Northern Gaza a year ago and is living in a tent shelter near the Al-Aqsa Hospital, which on October 24, was the target of an Israeli airstrike that set almost 30 tents on fire, killing and injuring over 40 people.

“The screaming of ambulance sirens transporting the dead and the wounded, the constant stench of blood and death makes me sick, and the sight of dismembered bodies is constantly on my mind,” says Sanaa.

“When my husband wants to be intimate, I refuse. I'm psychologically exhausted.”

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

Updated November 25, 2024, 11:00 AM EST