Another layer of misery: Women in Gaza struggle to find menstrual pads, running water
Hundreds of thousands of women are struggling without access to pads, running water or bathrooms in Gaza.
Heba Usrof, a young woman in Gaza, is running out of options to deal with her menstrual cycle. Pads have disappeared from pharmacies and stores. It's been this way since the war that began in October, and it's a situation that mirrors how nearly every basic requirement — from food to medical aid — has become harder to find in Gaza over the past three months.
"We go around and around, searching in all the pharmacies for pads, but we can't find any," Usrof says.
Ruba Akkila, whose work in Gaza before the war focused on the protection of women and children, says pads do sporadically appear on shelves, but they are five and six times their normal price when and if they are sold, putting them out of reach for most of Gaza's impoverished
