Almost 70 percent of deaths in Gaza are women and children: UN | News on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Overall, 44 percent of the victims were children; The youngest was a one-day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has condemned Israel’s “apparent indifference” to the killing of civilians in Gaza after a new report from his agency showed that nearly 70 percent of confirmed deaths were women and children.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released the report on Friday after reviewing 8,119 of the more than 34,500 people reportedly killed in the first six months of Israel’s war in Gaza, finding that a A high proportion were women and children – the youngest just one day old.

Turk criticized Israel’s “wanton disregard” of the “rules of war… designed to limit and prevent human suffering in times of armed conflict.” He called on Israel to comply with its international obligations, citing the current siege of the northern Gaza Strip and its decision to cut ties with the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The report warned that “widespread or systematic” attacks on civilians could constitute “crimes against humanity.”

“And when committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, they may also constitute genocide,” it said.

The United Nations’ age and gender breakdown of casualties supports Palestinian claims that women and children make up a large proportion of those killed in the war.

Overall, 44 percent of victims were children, with the largest single group being those aged five to nine, followed by those aged 10 to 14, and then those aged four and under.

The youngest victim was a day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.

It showed that five or more people were killed in the same attack 88 percent of the time, suggesting that the Israeli military uses weapons that hit wide areas in densely populated areas.

Some of the deaths may also have been the result of faulty projectiles by Palestinian armed groups that fell short, the report added.

It also pointed to “the Israeli government’s ongoing unlawful failure to allow, facilitate and ensure the entry of humanitarian assistance, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and repeated mass displacements.”

“This behavior by the Israel Defense Forces has resulted in unprecedented levels of killings, deaths, injuries, starvation and disease,” it said.

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

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 43,469 Palestinians and injured 102,561 since October 7, 2023, according to the enclave’s health ministry.