Nearly 70 percent of deaths in Gaza are women and children: UN
On November 8, 2024, 8:38 PM
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has condemned Israelâs âapparent indifferenceâ to the killing of civilians in Gaza, after a new report from his agency showed that nearly 70 percent of verified deaths were of women and children.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published the report on Friday, having verified 8,119 of the more than 34,500 people reportedly killed during the first six months of Israelâs war in Gaza, finding that a high proportion were women and children â the youngest just one day old.
Turk blasted Israelâs âwanton disregardâ for the ârules of war ⊠designed to limit and prevent human suffering in times of armed conflictâ. He urged Israel to comply with its international obligations, noting its current siege of northern Gaza and its decision to sever ties with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The report warned that âwidespread or systematicâ attacks on civilians could amount to âcrimes against humanityâ.
âAnd if committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, they may also constitute genocide,â it said.
The UNâs breakdown of the victimsâ ages and genders backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.
A Palestinian woman who lost her leg when her family home was hit in an Israeli strike in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, is carried down a ladder on November 7, 2024 [AFP].
Overall, 44 percent of the victims were children, with the biggest single category aged five to nine, followed by those aged 10-14, and then those aged up to and including four.
The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy and the oldest, was a 97-year-old woman.
It showed that in 88 percent of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack, pointing to the Israeli militaryâs use of weapons impacting wide areas in densely populated zones.
Some of the deaths may also have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups dropping short, the report added.
It also pointed to âthe Israeli governmentâs continuing unlawful failures to allow, facilitate and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and repeated mass displacementâ.
âThis conduct by Israeli forces has caused unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness and disease,â it continued.
Israel did not immediately comment on the reportâs findings.
Israelâs war on Gaza has killed at least 43,469 Palestinians and injured 102,561 since October 7, 2023, according to the enclaveâs Ministry of Health.
