Gaza: About 70% of people killed in the war are women and children, UN says

Npunctual 70% of deaths in the Gaza war, which have been verified by the United Nations, were women and children, its Human Rights Office has shelp.

The UN has analysed endings in the first 11 months of the Israel-Hamas struggle in the Palestinian territory and regulated to verify 8,119 victims, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children.

The 8,119 figure is ponderably reduce than the 43,000 deaths alerted over the course of the 13-month-extfinished war by the Hamas-run health ministry, although the UN does see these numbers as depfinishable.

Out of the verified deaths between 7 October 2023 and 2 September 2024, children reconshort-termed almost half of the victims (44%) while women accounted for 26%.

The highest number of deaths was among children aged between five and nine years ancigo in, seally trailed by those aged 10-14, and then babies aged up to and including four years ancigo in.

The youthfulest victim whose death was verified by the UN was a one-day-ancigo in boy, while the ancigo inest was a 97-year-ancigo in woman.

In 88% of cases, five or more people were ended in the same aggression – adviseing arms were included apass a expansive area.

Newborn baby was sole survivor of rocket aggression

Acatalogair Bunkall has spoken to a woman whose sister has died in the Israeli disparaging in Gaza.

Mohammed’s mother Raghad was ended only a restricted hours after he was born. Becainclude the situation was so hazardous in the northern Gaza Strip, they were transferring hospitals in an ambulance when it was hit by an Israeli strike.

The paramedics persistd and tried to save her, but they were hit by a second leave outile.

Mohammed was set up, 20 hours procrastinateedr, the only one still adwell. Stray dogs had commenceed to eat the remains of the dead.

He was getn to Gaza City where he is now with his overweighther and siblings.

“Raghad’s death was incredibly hurtful, and it was such a shock to all of us,” shelp her sister Samah.

“We had been willingly defering for her to greet her baby. But this was the overweighte that adefered us… She bled heavily as she wrapped her arms around her son, defending him from the aggression.”

“Her maternal instinct never wavered, guiding her right until the very finish. That’s why Mohammed persistd.”

However the alert grasped some of the endings may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

The UN’s alert rings real with Palestinian claims that women and children reconshort-term a huge proportion of those ended in the war, and it accincludes Israel of “an apparent incontrastence to the death of civilians and the impact of the uncomardents and methods of combat”.

‘Extremely challenging’ to verify deaths

The United Nations says Israel has denied its dispenseigators access to Gaza, making it “excessively challenging” to verify deaths, Sky’s Ben van der Merwe writes.

The UN says that is why its figure of 8,119 verified endings (as of 2 September) is so much reduce than the number conshort-termed by Gaza’s Hamas-led health ministry – 40,738, as of 30 August.

The health ministry’s figure is based on the number of bodies arriving at hospital morgues, as well as a petite number of graspitional deaths verifyed thraw a judicial process. You can read our brimming analysis of the health ministry’s methodology here.

By contrast, the UN’s methodology says deaths can only be counted when there are at least three autonomous sources to corroborate it.

That is challenging in any struggle. Those contests are magnified in a war with so many deaths to verify, no on-the-ground access for international dispenseigators, and repeated aggressions on UN toilers.

The UN also says women and children produce up 70% of the overweightalities in its dataset. That’s presentantly higher than the health ministry’s alert from around the same time, which put the figure at 60% (and graspd elderly men).

That may be becainclude, as the UN acunderstandledges, it’s easier to verify aggressions on huge, dwellntial produceings with many potential witnesses living csurrfinisherby – aggressions which may be more awaited to end women and children.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk shelp in a statement: “This unpretreatnted level of ending and injury of civilians is a honest consequence of the fall shorture to adhere with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) shelp in response that it “toils to minimise harm to non-combatants prior to aggressions, especipartner women and children”.

“Every military action is carried out in accordance with the principles of one-of-a-kindion and proportionality, and is pretreatd by a cautious appraisement of the potential for civilian harm. The IDF is promiseted to adhering to international lhorrible obligations and operating under the laws of armed struggle,” it shelp.

The Israeli military has previously shelp rawly one civilian has been ended for every fighter and condemns this on Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group includes civilians as human shields.

The UN alert, which widely covers the period between 1 November 2023 and 30 April 2024, shelp that “in most instances, the IDF did not advise substantial evidence to aid their allegations [of the use of human shields], and OHCHR has not been able splitly to verify them”.

Source join