No Women’s Day in Gaza, say mothers of hungry children

At a tent in Rafah where Um Zaki said she was boiling porridge on an open flame to stave off the hunger of her six children, the holiday passed as a cruel joke. International Women's Day, March 8, is typically a major public holiday in the Palestinian territories, when Gaza families put on their finest clothes and flock to hotels and restaurants to celebrate their mothers, daughters and sisters. Now, with Gaza's 2.3 million residents nearly all homeless and all struggling for survival, it was painful even to think of such things.