West Bank families led by women face greater displacement risks, OCHA says

Due to surging Israeli settler violence, West Bank families headed by women are more likely to be displaced and more likely to have chronic illness among household members compared with those headed by men, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The agency estimates that some 83,000 households (one in eight families in the West Bank) are headed by women. Nearly nine in 10 women interviewed who are heads of their households stated that checkpoints make travel feel unsafe, and more than half said movement restrictions are blocking access to their livelihoods. A UN Women’s analysis of a survey, among women who are formally recognised as household heads, notes that 82 per cent are responsible for managing household income, 77 per cent are responsible for childcare 75 per cent make all decisions about household members’ safety and 65 per cent handle aid registration alone. A Palestinian Bedouin woman gathering her laundry outside her home near the village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank on 22 June 2026. (AFP)