Women and children represent “nearly 70%” deaths in the Gaza Strip over the period from November 2023 to April 2024, the UN reported Friday after a careful verification of a partial count of victims of Israel’s war against Hamas.
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”. “Report shows civilians in Gaza were hardest hit by attacks, especially during total siege” of the narrow strip of territory by Israeli forces, the UN stressed.
“The behavior of Israeli forces has caused an unprecedented level of death, injury, starvation and disease”denounces the report, which also condemns “illegal and persistent breaches” of the Israeli government to facilitate access to humanitarian aid, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and repeated mass displacements of the population. Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN human rights office in the Palestinian territories, spoke of a “dystopia of destruction and devastation where survivors are injured, displaced and starved”.
The Israeli Embassy to the UN in Geneva has “categorically” rejected the report and its “absurd conclusions”denouncing “the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ inherent obsession with demonizing Israel”.
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