(Geneva) Women and children represented “nearly 70%” of deaths in the Gaza Strip over the period November 2023 to April 2024, the UN said on Friday after a careful verification of a partial count of war victims led by Israel against Hamas.
Published at 6:55 a.m.
The new report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also details a wide range of violations of international law, which for many could amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and perhaps even to a “genocide”.
The UN Human Rights Office verified 8,119 of the more than 34,500 people believed to have been killed in the first six months of the war, finding that “nearly 70 percent were children and women “.
“We believe this is representative of the distribution of the total number of deaths. A proportion similar to that given by the Gaza authorities,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the High Commission, told AFP.
The number and nature of victims in Gaza have been the subject of a recurring and very lively debate since the start of the war waged by Israel in retaliation for the attacks by the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The UN and many countries believe that the daily assessment given by the Hamas Ministry of Health is reliable. Israel has contested this since the start of the conflict.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner, the proportion of women and children indicates “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, in particular distinction and proportionality”. Of the verified deaths, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women, the report said.
Unprecedented
“This unprecedented level of civilian deaths and injuries is a direct consequence of the failure to respect the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law,” charged the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in a press release.
“Tragically, these documented violations continue unabated, more than a year after the start of the war,” he added.
According to his office, around 80% of all verified deaths took place in attacks on residential buildings or similar accommodation, and almost 90% of people were killed in incidents that claimed the lives of five or more people.
The report said the high proportion of verified deaths in residential buildings could be partly explained by the Office’s “verification methodology” which requires at least three independent sources.
He also points out that it is more difficult to collect and verify information on those killed in other circumstances.
Israel has insisted that its operations in Gaza target Hamas fighters.
But the report released Friday emphasizes that the verified deaths largely reflect the demographic makeup of Gaza’s general population, more than that of the fighters.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity .
Of the 251 people then kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza left 43,469 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, and caused a humanitarian disaster.
