Women and girls getting their periods in Gaza face humiliating conditions and infections, forced to use diapers or scraps of cloth after more than two months of fighting, AFP reports.
“I cut up my kid’s clothes or any piece of cloth I find, and I use them like sanitary towels for my period,” said 25-year-old Hala Ataya in the southern city of Rafah where many have fled.
Forced to leave her home in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, she came with her three children to a United Nations-run school, sharing a toilet and shower with hundreds of others.
The stench is nauseating in the toilet, which is filled with flies. The streets of Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border, have been transformed into open-air latrines.
“We’ve gone back to the Stone Age. There’s no security, no food, no water, no hygiene. I’m ashamed, I feel humiliated,” said Samar Shalhoub, 18, who was displaced from Gaza City.
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