'Resistance is Female': Gaza women protest for their right of return

GAZA - Hundreds of Palestinian women and girls gathered on Tuesday near the eastern fence separating the coastal enclave from Israel, in what the organisers called the "Palestinian Women for the Return and Breaking the Siege" protest.

In a press conference held in Gaza on Monday, the Higher National Commission of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege called on Palestinian women to "widely participate in the protest" and call for their right of return.

"This event comes to support the Palestinian women who are still steadfast despite the siege. It holds a clear message; that no one can deny our rights, especially the right of return and our demands to lift the siege," said Iktimal Hamad, the chairwoman of the commission's women's committee. 

Mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of those killed and injured during the Great March of Return protests, as well as female journalists and university students, held Palestinian flags and signs calling for the right of return and affirmed their willingness to keep the protests alive.

"Who said women cannot fight just as effectively as men?" exclaimed Suheir Khader, 39, who came to the gathering with her family and friends.

"We were brought up with the fact that resistance is female. Our grandmothers always assisted our grandfathers and fought along with them during the Nakba (the Catastrophe) and the first Intifada."

"I am here today because we [women] cannot just sit there and watch our fathers and husbands being killed and injured. It is our duty to at least share this struggle with them," added Khader. 

Women injured during the Great March of Return protests also participated in Tuesday's protest, calling for their right to medical treatment and demanding the right of return.

Amani al-Najjar, 25, said that nothing would prevent her from attending the protests, "not even my injury".

"I got injured with a tear gas canister to the chest during the third week of the protests," she explained. "Three days later, after I started recovering, I came back here to protest again."

Najjar, whose brother was killed by an Israeli sniper while participating in protests near the eastern fence last year, said: "I am here to continue what my brother started. If they [Israeli soldiers] killed him to intimidate us and force us to stop, they are wrong. They just gave us another reason to continue."