War Devastates All – it Deepens Gendered Injustice in the Middle East!
Since early March 2026, the war in Lebanon and across the Middle East has further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis already sparked by the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Across the region, women and girls account for a significant proportion of reported victims in the recent wave of violence. They are disproportionately affected by repeated displacement, the collapse of essential services, and heightened exposure to gender-based violence.
We, members of the EuroMed Rights Regional Working Group on Women’s Rights, Gender Justice & Freedoms, express our deep concern over the gendered impacts of these wars. They mark a serious setback in the protection of the fundamental rights of women and girls to life, health, dignity, and security across the Euro-Mediterranean region.
This escalation has forced hundreds of thousands of women and girls into overcrowded shelters with no privacy. It has disrupted reproductive health services and sharply increased risks of gender-based violence, including sexual and gender-based violence.
In Lebanon alone, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, including an estimated 620,000 women and girls, nearly one quarter of the country’s female population. Among them are 325,500 women of reproductive age, including around 13,500 who are pregnant, with an estimated 1,500 expected to give birth within the next 30 days. Many, including 1,700 pregnant women in southern Lebanon, are now cut off from essential care as health facilities are under attack or forced to close.
Across the wider Middle East, more than 18 million women and girls face heightened risks of gender-based violence due to insecurity, displacement, and the breakdown of protective environments.