Tens of thousands of girls in Gaza have experienced puberty since October 2023. At an already sensitive time, these girls have been left with no access to proper menstrual supplies or education about the transition to adulthood.

12-year-old Sara was sharing a single classroom with more than 40 people when she got her first period. Her family were displaced in the Rimal neighbourhood, Gaza City, where they had found shelter in a repurposed school after fleeing Israeli bombardment.

Unprepared for this moment, Sara had no hygiene supplies or kits to ease the surprise of menstruating for the first time. Recalling this time, her mother says:

“Severe overcrowding in the classroom turned a natural biological milestone into a source of fear, guilt and the urge to hide away.”

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The trauma of this moment affected Sara so much that she became completely emotionally withdrawn and “refused to eat food just to avoid having to use the contaminated public bathroom”.

For Sara, this moment offered only the “overwhelming terror and anxiety of knowing that having a period meant an immense added burden and pressure under these living conditions”.

Many of Gaza’s sexual and reproductive health programmes closed down quickly when the genocide began because of safety concerns for staff. But this has left a gap in the psychological support provided and is impacting girls’ understanding of their own bodies as they hit puberty.

On the withdrawal of these education programmes, Sara’s sister said: “Girls reaching puberty during wartime requires sensitive humanitarian intervention that honours both their mental health and physical development.”

Instead, this........

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