Israeli siege cut off water, electricity and sanitary pads for menstruating women in Gaza, aid workers and displaced women say

Leena was 16 when the evacuation order came. She had minutes to leave her home in Gaza. Sanitary pads were not on the list of what she grabbed.

"When we left, it didn't occur to me to take sanitary pads with me because we didn't expect the war to be like this," Leena told The New Arab. Three years later she is still displaced, living in a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah. Her period stopped for a year and a half, she said, a result of stress, fear and malnutrition. She is still being treated for hair loss and other physical effects.

Before October 2023, Gaza had maintained relatively stable sanitation and menstrual healthcare access despite an 18-year blockade, according to Dina, a displaced mother now sharing a tent with her daughters in Nuseirat. She described the earlier period as one of "complete independence and private access to personal care products for every family member," in her account to The New Arab.

That access depended on clean water, which Israeli forces cut off as part of the siege. On October 9, 2023, Israel announced what it called a complete siege of Gaza, including restrictions on the electricity that powered desalination plants serving the strip's 2.1 million residents. Humanitarian agencies warned within days that Gaza's water and sanitation systems were on the verge of collapse. Israeli forces have also struck water infrastructure and desalination facilities during the war, according to documented reporting.

As the blockade dragged on, pads and tampons disappeared from markets or appeared at extortionate prices. Ayah, displaced with her three daughters in Deir al-Balah, described choosing between food and sanitary products. "Buying pads at ten times the normal price was often at the expense of our family's evening meal," she said.

Liz Alcock, head of humanitarian protection at Medical Aid for Palestinians, has made multiple visits to Gaza during the war. She described specific items being stopped at the border.

"Bars of soap were taken, sanitary towels were taken. All sorts of things that would provide a very minimum level of basic decency for people were removed at a time when those items were largely unavailable," Alcock told The New Arab.

That account is a specific, named allegation from an official at a recognized aid organization; The New Arab did not report an Israeli response to it.

Israa Saleh, a Palestinian-American academic who returned to Gaza shortly before the war began, has worked with Médecins du Monde providing reproductive health support. She said shortages of painkillers and contraceptive pills, the latter commonly used to manage heavy or irregular bleeding, forced her to ration care. "You feel unfair as a healthcare provider making these decisions," she said.

Dina recalled how women in her camp pooled scarce water, a litre at a time, to help each other clean menstrual cloths when pads ran out entirely.

Palestinian period-rights activist Maria Rashed said the toll goes beyond the physical. "You start to feel embarrassed that you are even a woman," she told The New Arab, describing menstruation in Gaza as a source of shame rather than a private, manageable fact of life.