Almost 70% of Gaza war dead women and children

The UN Human Rights Office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the war in Gaza, saying its analysis shows that close to 70% of confirmed casualties over a six-month period were women and children.

The agency said the high number was largely due to Israel’s use of weapons of mass effect in densely populated areas, although some deaths may have been the result of stray projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

The report said it found “unprecedented” levels of violations of international law, raising concerns about “war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes”.

Israel has previously said it is targeting Hamas and taking steps to reduce the risk to civilians by using precision munitions.

The BBC contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment in response to Friday’s report.

The UN agency said it confirmed the details of 8,119 people killed in Gaza from November 2023 to April 2024.

Its analysis found that about 44% of confirmed victims were children and 26% were women. The ages most represented among the dead were five to nine-year-olds.

About 80% of the victims were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, the agency added.

The report said the data indicate “an apparent indifference to civilian deaths and the impact of the means and methods of warfare”.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, whose figures the UN sees as reliablehas reported a death toll of more than 43,300 people over the past 13 months. Many more bodies are believed to remain under the rubble of bombed buildings.

The Ministry of Health said it obtained full demographic data for a majority of those killed and reported that children account for one in three of that number.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement that “this unprecedented level of killing and injury to civilians is a direct consequence of failure to respect basic principles of international humanitarian law”.

He cited the laws of distinction, which require belligerents to distinguish between combatants and civilians, proportionality, which prohibits attacks where harm to civilians outweighs military advantage, and precautions in the event of an attack.

Türk called for a “proper reckoning with regard to the allegations of serious violations of international law”.

The IDF has previously told the BBC in response to criticism that it “will continue to act as it always has, according to international law”.

The report also said that the way the warring parties have conducted the conflict in Gaza has “caused terrible human suffering”.

The UN said Palestinian armed groups have waged war from densely populated areas and indiscriminately used projectiles, likely contributing to the death toll, while the IDF has destroyed civilian infrastructure and “left many of them alive, wounded, displaced and starving without access to adequate water , food or health care”.

The situation is worst in northern Gaza, which aid groups say has been under siege since early October, when Israel launched a new offensive against Hamas.

The UN said no food aid entered the north in the first two weeks of October.

This prompted the US to issue an ultimatum to Israel to increase aid by November 12 or risk losing some military support.

Jan Egeland, the head of the aid organization Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC on Friday that he saw “devastation, despair, unimaginable” on a recent visit to Gaza.

“There is hardly a building that is not damaged. And large areas looked like Stalingrad after the Second World War. You cannot imagine how intense this indiscriminate bombing has been on this trapped population,” he said.

“It is clear that it is first and foremost children and women who are paying a price for this senseless war,” he added.

Israel launched its current military offensive in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza.