Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN rights office says

By Emma Farge, Reuters

Palestinians survey the damage from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in April, reported to have killed about 35 people. Photo: Jehad Alshrafi / AP

• Report covers fatalities verified by UN rights office
• It says nearly 70 percent were women and children
• Israel says it takes care to avoid harming civilians

The U.N. Human Rights Office says nearly 70 percent of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

The U.N. count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago.

The 8119 victims verified by the U.N. Rights Office in that seven-month period is considerably lower than the toll of over 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the full 13 months of conflict.

But the U.N. breakdown of the victims' age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.

This finding indicates "a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality", the U.N. rights office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.

"It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.

• Read more: UN inquiry accuses Israel of 'crime of extermination' in Gaza

Israel did not immediately comment on the report's findings.

Israel's military, which began its offensive in response to the 7 October, 2023 attack in which Hamas fighters killed about 1200 people in southern Israel and seized more than 250 hostages, says it takes care to avoid harming civilians in Gaza.

It has said approximately one civilian has been killed for every fighter, a ratio it blames on Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group uses civilian facilities. Hamas has denied using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.

Youngest victim aged one day

The youngest victim whose death was verified by U.N. monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman, the report said.

Overall, children represented 44 percent of the victims, with children aged 5-9 representing the single biggest age category, followed by those aged 10-14, and then those aged up to and including 4.

This broadly reflects the enclave's demographics, which the report said reflected an apparent failure to take precautions to avoid civilian losses.

It showed that in 88 percent of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack, pointing to the Israeli military's use of weapons with an effect across a wide area, although it said some fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

- Reuters