Destruction of Gaza Court System Strips Women of Their Rights

Drop Site is a reader-funded, independent news outlet. Without your support, we can’t operate. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible donation today . Subscribe Salma Abdel Hadi (left) inside her tent speaking to journalist Rasha Abou Jalal (right) in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central the Gaza Strip on September 25, 2026. Photo by Saida Al-Torkmani. GAZA CITY—Standing before the rubble of the Palace of Justice in central Gaza, Salma Abdel Hadi was overwhelmed by a profound sense of helplessness. Since her husband’s killing last year, the 38-year-old mother of six has been unable to secure inheritance rights for herself and her children to help provide food and clothing in the midst of a genocide. The Israeli military deliberately destroyed the Palace of Justice in Al-Zahra City early in the war, rigging the court complex with explosives and demolishing the entire structure on December 4, 2023. Abdel Hadi’s husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike in August 2025, leaving her alone to raise and feed their children in the Nuseirat refugee camp—and with no functioning court system, accessing any of her late husband’s money or property has been all but impossible. “My children need their rights more than ever,” Abdel Hadi told Drop Site News, clasping her hands together in anguish. “But today I find myself facing a question to which I have no answer: How can I protect my children’s right to inherit from their father if the place that is supposed to provide me with a document proving that right has been reduced to rubble?” In the three years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the military has systematically destroyed most of the enclave, including residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and universities, bakeries, water systems, electrical grids, along with most of Gaza’s governmental, judicial, and bureaucratic infrastructure. The lack of a functioning judicial system in Gaza has particularly affected Palestinian women, who face a series of seemingly insurmountable legal and bureaucratic obstacles to secure legal rights like inheritance, divorce, alimony, property rights, and more. Abdel Hadi said she is entitled to an inheritance of approximately $5,000 held in her late husband’s bank account, yet she cannot access the funds without an inheritance certificate issued by the court. The delays in establishing inheritance rights from her husband for herself and her children also allowed members of his family to take control of some of his property. “My husband’s brother seized my husband’s car without any legal right, and I was unable to recover it through the judicial process because the courts are not functioning,” she said. She estimates recovering ownership of the car and selling it could fetch as much as $20,000. For a family that has lost its breadwinner and sole source of income, the funds are critical and could make it possible to move out of the tent where they are living and into a rented home, afford more food, and even set aside whatever they can for the children’s future. Abdel Hadi also needs official documentation in order to obtain any assistance or financial rights connected to their father, and prevent their property from being disposed of without legal oversight. Aside from the car, the family owns a 300-meter plot of land located near the Nuseirat camp where Abdel Hadi has pitched a tent. In the absence of any documents, Abdel Hadi is unable as a widow to safeguard her own social and economic rights or those of her children. “I want to get my children out of the tents and provide them with a home where we can live, food to satisfy their hunger, and savings that will help them continue their education when they reach university age,” Abdel Hadi said. In Gaza, the Sharia court is the authority that handles divorce, alimony, custody, and guardianship cases, and issues documents establishing inheritance, widowhood, death, and marriage. When these procedures are suspended or become inaccessible, legal rights become pending claims that are difficult to prove or enforce. Women in Gaza are bearing the brunt of Israel’s attack on the court system, particularly widows, divorced women, and women caring for minors. The war has killed husbands and breadwinners, separated families, and destroyed marriage documents and other files. In this vacuum, women find themselves forced to negotiate with other parties and bargain over their rights. A December 2025 report by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights found that “the suspension of Sharia courts and the halt in receiving new cases as a result of the Israeli attack have devastating effects on the situation of women in the Gaza Strip, in the absence of any institutional alternatives capable of addressing personal status cases. Women have become unable to pursue cases involving separation, alimony or custody, leaving them in a legally suspended and unstable situation.” The report noted that these circumstances have “exacerbated women’s psychological, social and economic suffering, made them more vulnerable to marginalization and exploitation, and even pushed many of them to relinquish their rights involuntarily as a result of the lack of avenues for legal redress and the collapse of the formal protection system.” It added, “women have paid the highest price for the disruption of the judiciary, losing their Sharia, economic and social rights and being subjected to continuous legal and psychological injustice in the absence of institutional protection and support.” Aida Hamid (center in red) sits on the coast in Gaza City on September 26. Photo by Rasha Abou Jalal. In August 2023, two months before Israel’s genocidal assault began, Aida Hamid’s husband left her. He offered to grant her a divorce in exchange for her giving up her financial rights, including her deferred dowry, and other rights she was legally entitled to. “I refused to give up my Sharia rights in order to obtain the divorce so I decided to file a lawsuit that would guarantee me a divorce while preserving my legal rights,” Hamid, 32, told Drop Site. “However, the outbreak of war, the destruction of the courts and the disruption of judicial work left my case unresolved and suspended.” Without any recourse in court, Hamid, who lives in Gaza City, has been left in limbo. Not only has she been denied financial rights, such as a deferred dowry and alimony, which she estimates at some 7,000 Jordanian dinars (about $9,900), she has remained legally married, preventing her from finding a new partner and marrying again. “More than three years have passed without my case being resolved, leaving me trapped in an unresolved social and legal situation,” she said. “I have been abandoned by my husband, and I do not have a court ruling ending the marriage, which has turned my life into complete chaos.” Financial rights are more than just abstract legal entitlements for Hamid, but instead are a vital resource that would help her secure basic needs and cost of living as the genocide enters its fourth year. “Receiving my deferred dowry and alimony would grant me a degree of financial independence and reduce my dependence on others for my living expenses, especially since I have been living in a state of legal and social limbo for over three years due to the courts being closed,” Halid said. Mohammad Shehadeh, a lawyer who specializes in civil and Sharia cases, told Drop Site that the effective incapacitation of the Sharia judiciary in Gaza has “disrupted the lives of thousands of women and left them facing a legal and social vacuum that threatens their rights and the rights of their children.” Widows need a series of documents to establish their rights, such as proof of the husband’s death or filing a missing person claim, followed by obtaining an inheritance certificate and proof of widowhood, and guardianship or legal authority over any children. “When the court is absent or the document is lost, the rights of women and children are no longer protected by law, but instead become vulnerable to family pressure, seizure or forced relinquishment,” Shehadeh said. He added that child custody cases are becoming increasingly complicated, particularly when a husband is killed or goes missing, leading to disputes between the wife and the husband’s relatives over the care of the children and the management of their inheritance. Abandoned women also face difficulties obtaining rulings on separation and divorce, alimony, child custody or visitation rights. Existing judgments are also difficult to enforce with no authority capable of compelling payments or handing over documents. There may also be unforeseen long term consequences of a nonfunctioning judiciary that are not immediately apparent, Shehadeh warned. “A judicial file that is lost today may turn tomorrow into a prolonged dispute over a home, land, inheritance or custody, and proving the right may become more difficult as time passes,” he said, adding that some women may be compelled to accept unfair settlements or relinquish their rights in exchange for a quick resolution to a legal issue. As with much else in Gaza, the damage to the Sharia judicial system in Israel’s assault has been devastating. Around half of all court premises have been completely destroyed, according to Dr. Omar Nofal, the head of the Sharia Court of Appeal in Gaza. Three of 30 judges have been killed along with 20 judicial staff members. A large part of the courts’ paper archives, including historical records and documents, has been burned or destroyed. And as with nearly all Palestinians in Gaza, most judicial staff have been displaced, forcing them to work from their places of shelter or temporary locations, turning even simple bureaucratic procedures into an ordeal. “We established three temporary locations in the Gaza Strip that operate as courts, though their role is limited to receiving and registering lawsuits,” Nofal said. “Because of the difficult circumstances resulting from the war, judges have completed only a very small fraction of these cases, while most cases have yet to be heard. Some of them have been registered for more than a year without being considered.” Nofal also stressed that women face particular obstacles in cases involving separation or divorce, spousal and child alimony, custody, guardianship, and inheritance. “When documents are lost or access to the court becomes impossible, the children’s money and the family’s rights remain suspended, and the woman may be forced to relinquish her rights,” Nofal said. He also highlighted that even if women obtain court rulings establishing their rights, they face major obstacles in securing those rights in practice. “Even if a woman obtains a court ruling establishing her right—for example, if a divorced woman obtains her right to alimony or custody of her children—there are no executive bodies to enforce the court order because the Israeli army is pursuing the police authorities in Gaza,” he said. Police authorities in Gaza that are responsible for law enforcement have been targeted by Israel in repeated attacks. Between January and August 2026, the UN recorded at least 18 Israeli attacks against police personnel in Gaza, resulting in the killing of at least 77 Palestinians, including 57 police personnel, six children and four women. The attacks have targeted police headquarters, posts, and vehicles, and appear to be escalating, with six of them being carried out since June. On August 19, an Israeli airstrike targeted a temporary municipal police headquarters in Gaza City, killing eight police officers, including Fatena Al-Sahhar, the head of the Women’s Police in Gaza Governorate, as well as a 13-year-old girl. “Under international humanitarian law, police personnel are civilians protected against attacks. Targeting them is a war crime,” the UN said in a statement. One year into the so-called “ceasefire,” Israel continues to violate the agreement on a daily basis, continuing its attacks on Palestinians and preventing any reconstruction, including of Gaza’s social, governmental, and judicial institutions. “With the absence of the judiciary, I have been left without a ruling to end my marriage and without any means of claiming my rights,” Abdel Hadi said. “I feel as though my life has completely stopped along with the suspension of the courts’ work.” Leave a comment