After the May 2021 war on Gaza a local organisation in Hebron working on women’s issues requested a project be initiated to hire a Gazan woman for six months to research the humanitarian needs of women to provide research for further funding and support. Friends of Hebron are contributing to the wages of the project officer.

With the massive humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by the Israeli attacks in Gaza in May 2021 and the forced evictions in East Jerusalem (among other parts of the West Bank), this project was seen as a critical support for the women in Gaza.

The initiative was to initially employ a woman from Gaza for a period of six months to provide updated information about the very basic humanitarian needs of some of the affected families there. This initiative was suggested to us by a local organization here in Hebron working on women issues. The information will be used by the organization to provide in-depth analysis and funding proposals for donor countries.

A social worker was employed and supplied with a laptop to assist with the intervention, and will continue to December. There have already been a number of meetings/interventions, geographical scope and the impact the project is having on the women and girls of Gaza. The project coordinator has gone well beyond the number of monthly sessions stipulated by the projects (from 10 meetings a month to 22 in the month of June, 2021). She has, also, covered the entire Gaza Strip and not only Gaza Governorate (as stipulated in the hiring agreement).

For the month of July, HIRN continued to support the work of ADWAR in Gaza. Psychosocial exercises for women affected by the recent conflict in May 2021 were administered in Al Naser area of Gaza City, Umm Al Naser village, Al Sawahreh village, the area of Qizan Abu Rashwan in Khan Younis in addition to three regions in the City of Rafah. We are very thrilled with the  progress made by this project.