CrossFireArabia, Author at CrossFireArarbia

Gaza: 28,000 Widows Must Serve as Breadwinners

CrossFireArabia
June 24, 2026

Today, there are more than 28,000 widows in Gaza according to the Ministry of Social Development. These widows are living through one of the most severe humanitarian crises in modern history, amidst the ongoing conflict that has led to a surge in the number of women solely bearing the responsibility of supporting their families under exceptionally difficult circumstances.

In a press release, Wednesday, the Ministry revealed a sharp increase in the number of widows during the current war, reaching 28,224, compared to 22,596 before the war began.

Gaza City has recorded the highest percentage of widows at 40.8%, followed by North Gaza at 22.5% with the two northern governorates accounting for more than 70% of the urgent interventions needed to support the families of martyrs, according to the Ministry.

According to official statistics, approximately 64% of widows, or about 16,877 women, are of working age (18-45 years old), necessitating the launch of urgent economic empowerment programs.

The Ministry indicated that elderly widows aged 60 and over constitute 14.9%, while widows under the age of 18 represent about 0.4%.

Last May, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research reported in a research paper the war on Gaza led to an unprecedented increase in the phenomenon of women breadwinners, with the number of widows exceeding 22,000 according to Quds Press.

The center emphasized that addressing this phenomenon requires a comprehensive vision that integrates women breadwinners into the production and reconstruction process, recognizing them as essential elements in social and economic recovery, not merely recipients of aid.

The 23rd of June marks International Widows’ Day, established by the United Nations to highlight the economic and social challenges facing widows, most notably poverty, deprivation of inheritance, and the absence of social protection.

Since October 8, 2023, Israel, with American and European support, has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, including killing, starvation, destruction, displacement, and arrests, ignoring international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to cease its actions.

The genocide left more than 246,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people and a famine that claimed the lives of many, most of them children, as well as widespread destruction and the erasure of most of the cities and areas of the Gaza Strip from the map.

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Remains of 40 Martyrs Recovered in Gaza

CrossFireArabia
June 24, 2026

The Palestinian Civil Defense teams recovered the remains of 40 martyrs from the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in Gaza City on Tuesday. Parts of the cemetery were bulldozed and desecrated by Israeli occupation forces during their ground incursions into the area over the last two years.

Civil Defense personnel pointed out the remains of the martyrs were then transferred from the cemetery’s eastern side to forensic teams, in preparation for completing a full medical examination to identify the victims, a long procedure by itself. Representatives from the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs were also present in the recovery of the 40 martyrs.

A Civil Defense statement explained the bulldozing of the cemetery resulted in the remains being unearthed and mixed together which necessitated in their transfer to the relevant authorities for examination and identification.

Director of Public Relations of Civil Defense Abdullah al-Majdalawi, confirmed the teams now face significant challenges to identify the recovered remains. He explained most of what was found consisted of decomposed body parts and skeletons of martyrs, including children and the elderly.

Al-Majdalawi pointed out the excavation and bulldozing operations by the Israelis obliterated the features of many graves and mixed the body remains, meaning great heartache for the families seeking to learn the fate of their loved ones and document their identities. “How can names be reduced to numbers” he wondered while highlighting the scale of the human tragedy caused by these practices.

These developments come at a time when the burial crisis in the Gaza Strip is worsening. Since the outbreak of the war, residents have been forced to establish mass graves and makeshift cemeteries in public squares, roads, and around hospitals, including in Al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, and the Baptist Hospital, due to the siege and the difficulty of accessing the main cemeteries.

Gaza City also suffers from a severe shortage of burial space. The only functioning cemeteries are the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery and the Baptist Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. This has led many families to reopen old graves and bury multiple martyrs in a single grave, while simultaneously increasing the costs of preparing graves.

Human rights organizations and media outlets documented the bulldozing and desecration operations targeting a number of cemeteries in the Gaza Strip during Israeli ground operations. This resulted in the exhumation and mixing of the remains of the dead and martyrs, practices that constitute a violation of international humanitarian law and the sanctity of the dead.

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Gaza Protest: ‘Stop Israeli Ceasefire Violations’

CrossFireArabia
June 24, 2026

CROSSFIREARABIA – Palestinians in Gaza City hold a protest, Monday, against the continual Israeli violations of the ceasefire that was signed on 10 October, 2025. Since that time, Israel chose to violate the skies of Gaza thousands of times and the killing of over a 1000 Palestinian and the injury of over 3000. Through different banners, the protesters called on the international community to pressure the Israeli occupation to desist from violating the ceasefire and respect international law.

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Israel Continues to Target Children – UN Report

CrossFireArabia
June 23, 2026

Israel continues to commit genocide and other atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children, a UN report said on Tuesday.

“Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank,” read the report published by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The commission said it had concluded last year that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued, causing unprecedented death, injury and trauma among Palestinian children.

“The deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza,” the commission said.

“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the commission.

“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law,” he added.

“Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts,” the commission said.

“Israeli security forces have also used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered, and intergenerational pattern of Israeli occupation and hostilities,” it added.

The report said Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centers in Gaza directly harmed the survival of newborns and Palestinians’ reproductive future, including increases in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities among newborns.

“Starvation imposed by Israel through blockade and siege have further caused the death of Palestinian children and severely impacted the health of many others, depriving them of essential nutrition and increasing disease risks amid reduced immunization, food insecurity and destroyed health services,” it also said.

“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Muralidhar said. “The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”

“The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Muralidhar said. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”

The commission said it had identified Israeli military units responsible for killing and injuring Palestinian children and made recommendations to Israel and UN member states to ensure accountability.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli attacks have killed 1,021 Palestinians and injured 3,249 others since late 2025 in daily violations of the ceasefire in effect.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 73,032 people, injured over 173,300 and caused massive destruction to about 90% of the enclave’s infrastructure, with the United Nations estimating reconstruction costs at about $70 billion.

Since October 2023, West Bank cities and towns have seen near-daily Israeli raids, including arrests and home searches. The escalation by the Israeli army and occupiers has killed 1,173 Palestinians, wounded 12,666, led to the arrest of about 23,000 and displaced 33,000, according to official Palestinian figures. Anadolu

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