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Araiza, Fatima From:Rima Nashashibi <rima@globalhope365.org> Sent:Tuesday, December 19, 2023 11:16 AM To:eComment Subject:Support a Ceasefire Resolution E-comment , As an organization whose goal is to end harmful practices against women and girls, such as child marriage, human trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence, I was shocked to read the following statement by a UN official. Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), recalled that women and girls pay the highest price when armed conflict erupts. Since 7 October, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, 70% percent of the more than 20,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children. “That is two mothers killed every hour and seven women every two hours, and a child every 10 minutes” she said. “We mourn them all.” Every day, 180 women are giving birth without water, painkillers, anesthesia for Caesarean sections, electricity for incubators or medical supplies, she said. Mothers, meanwhile, mix baby formula with contaminated water — when they find it — and go without food so that their children can live another day. “Women in Gaza have told us that they pray for peace, but that if peace does not come, they pray for a quick death, in their sleep, with their children in their arms,” she said. “It should shame us all that any mother, anywhere, has such a prayer.” And so it is with a heavy heart that I express my disappointment in the recent decision to vote against this crucial resolution to stand in solidarity with the women, children and men that are being killed every day in Support of a Ceasefire. I am writing to you as a concerned member of the community to urge your support. The situation in Gaza demands our immediate attention and action. People are starving to death, and have no access to sanitary water or medicine. 1