Today, WRC somberly commemorates the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks and the start of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.
On this day two years ago, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 251 people to Gaza, where around 50 still remain. Women and girls were brutalized. It was the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, deeply traumatizing Israelis and shattering their sense of safety.
In the two years of war since then, more than 66,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, the majority of whom are women and children. Nearly the entire population has been displaced during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Gazan women and children are living a daily nightmare fighting to survive during this war, the effects of which will be felt for generations.
As WRC has documented in conflict after conflict, women and girls disproportionately bear the brunt of wars that they did not create.
Everyone has a right to live in safety and security, and with peace and dignity. Today, we mourn the thousands of lives lost and futures shattered by this conflict. And we repeat our call for an end to the violence and the beginning of a peace that includes the voices, ideas, and work of women and girls who have endured the worst of this war.