<\/p>\n
8 March 2026<\/p>\n
Hajar remembers the sound splitting through the air in the Gaza Strip\u2019s southern Khan Younis area. It was an already tense day for the ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA administrative officer. Her son Mohammed had left only half an hour earlier, heading to an ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA school that had been turned into an emergency shelter. He wanted to use the internet there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not think the school would be hit,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt was full of displaced people.\u201d<\/p>\n
But soon the street was filled with confusion and panic. People were running. News began to spread. Dozens of people were caught in the blast. Forty people were killed that terrible day in June 2024. Mohammed was among them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was 27. He had finished his studies in special education, and he loved helping people with disabilities,\u201d says Hajar, who is now in her fifties. \u201cHis wedding was supposed to take place just days after the war began. He was a kind young man.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a single moment, her life was changed forever. She explains: \u201cEverything was gone. The dream, the wedding, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet even as her own life unravelled, Hajar continued working. As the war deepened, she was assigned to an ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA shelter in Rafah that hosted nearly 30,000 displaced people. Despite her own grief and loss, she helped register families arriving with little more than the clothes they were wearing. She distributed food, hygiene items and essential supplies for women and children who had lost everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork became a way to escape,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it was also a responsibility toward people who needed help.\u201d Hajar also did not have space to stop. She still had six other children depending on her.<\/p>\n
When the Rafah invasion displaced thousands once again in May 2024, Hajar returned to Khan Younis. Her home there had been almost destroyed. Even so, she resumed her work with ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA\u2019s operations teams there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war turned our lives upside down and took everything from us,\u201d she says. \u201cWe lost our home, everything inside it, electricity, water, education, access to clinics. Any sense of safety was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
At times, the family could not find bread or flour. But her dedication to her work kept her going. \u201c±¬ÁÏÍøRWA has been part of my life since my birth,\u201d she explains. \u201cI was born in one of its health centres, studied in its schools and later graduated from one of its community colleges. I am a Palestine Refugee and a product of this mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a delicate ceasefire, for Hajar, more than two years of war have meant balancing grief, motherhood and humanitarian duty. Like thousands of ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA women staff in the Gaza Strip, she has continued serving her community while facing the same loss, hunger, injury and displacement as the families she supports – all while caring for her remaining six children.<\/p>\n
Hajar finds strength in her courageous community. \u201cI see hope in the young men and women carrying laptops, searching, like Mohammed once did, for the nearest place with an internet connection so they can take an exam or attend a lecture. That is hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her journey, Hajar says motherhood and work are one path. \u201cBoth require balance, conviction, and endurance,\u201d she says. \u201cWomen in Gaza carry so much. I hope the world supports them and recognises their sacrifices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
8 March 2026 Hajar remembers the sound splitting through the air in the Gaza Strip\u2019s southern Khan Younis area. It was an already tense day for the ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA administrative officer. Her son Mohammed had left only half an hour earlier, heading to an ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA school that had been turned into an emergency shelter. He […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[6926],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2005,2613,1745,1841],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-316033","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-stories","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-women","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/316033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/316033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316034,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/316033\/revisions\/316034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=316033"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=316033"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=316033"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=316033"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=316033"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=316033"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=316033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}