Gaza mothers face hunger, grief and missing children on Mother's Day

In Gaza's crowded displacement camps, Palestinian mothers are marking Mother's Day on Sunday not with flowers or celebration but with hunger and grief, struggling to locate children missing in Israeli attacks or mourning those already confirmed dead while living in threadbare tents across the southern city of Khan Younis. As Türkiye and several other countries observe the annual commemoration, many mothers in the besieged enclave said they no longer seek dignified lives but merely safety, food and protection for their remaining children from death and repeated displacement.

According to UN Women, more than 22,000 women and nearly 16,000 girls have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. Data from Gaza's Government Media Office and the UN Population Fund indicate that over 22,000 women have lost their husbands during the war, while approximately 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women face severe health risks amid the collapse of the health care system and worsening malnutrition, with more than 90% of the population displaced multiple times.

'He is the air I breathe'

Widad al-Najjar, displaced from her hometown of Khuzaa east of Khan Younis, has been forced to relocate more than six times since the war began and now resides in a small tent offering little protection from heat or cold. The Palestinian mother told Anadolu that her family lost their homes, relatives and all possessions, leaving only memories, yet her deepest anguish stems from the disappearance of her only son — born after six daughters — with whom she lost contact during the first months of the war.

"All I want is to know his fate," she said. "Was he killed or taken prisoner? I just want an answer that can calm my heart." Al-Najjar added that she lives suspended between hope that he survives and fear that she will never see him again, saying: "I cannot live without him. He is the air I breathe. Without him, I have no life."

Grief, detention and survival

In another camp in Khan Younis, Huda al-Madani mourns her son Ibrahim, killed in an Israeli attack, while fearing for her other son Ahmad, who has remained in Israeli prisons for more than two years. Madani told Anadolu that Ibrahim left behind five orphaned children, and Ahmad has never met his own son, born after his detention and now nearly three years old, a child who constantly asks about his father.

"Our hearts are broken, and we wait for any news about him," she said. For many displaced mothers, suffering extends beyond emotional loss into the daily struggle for survival amid severe shortages of food, water and income. Umm Mahmoud Baraka, a widow now providing for four children alone after her husband was killed, said she has become "both a mother and a father" to her family. "We are trying to stay alive amid hunger, fear and the absence of the most basic necessities of life," she told Anadolu.

The humanitarian catastrophe continues despite a ceasefire agreement reached after two years of war that began in October 2023, killing over 72,000 people, injuring more than 172,000 and destroying 90% of civilian infrastructure. Since the ceasefire took effect, Israeli forces have killed around 850 Palestinians and injured 2,433 others through continued violations involving shelling and gunfire, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.