Majority of the Gaza war dead were women and children, according to a UN investigation

The UN slammed on Friday the shocking number of civilians killed in Israel’s war in Gaza. Of the thousands of deaths that it had been able to confirm, nearly 70% were women and children.

Israel criticized a new report from the UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) that listed numerous violations of international law since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, which ignited the Gaza Strip war. It stated that many of them might constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even “genocide,” and it urged everyone to cooperate in order to put an end to “atrocity crimes” and ensure that those responsible face justice.”The attacks, including when Israeli forces first “completely sieged” the area, have hit people in Gaza the hardest,” the UN said.

“What Israeli forces have done has resulted in an unprecedented level of killings, deaths, injuries, hunger, illness, and disease.”Additionally, it mentioned “the Israeli government’s continuing unlawful failures to allow, facilitate, and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid,” along with the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the repeated movement of large groups of people. Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva “categorically” rejected the report, expressing dissatisfaction with “OHCHR’s inherent obsession with demonizing Israel.

“”Gaza is now a landscape of broken glass,” Ajith Sunghay, who is in charge of the UN rights office’s work in the Palestinian areas, said from Amman via video link.

“In this dystopia of destruction and devastation, those who are still alive face injuries, forced relocation, and hunger. “The report released on Friday also said that Hamas and other armed groups had done many things that could be considered war crimes or crimes against humanity. These things included taking prisoners, killing them, torturing them, and sexually assaulting them.

According to an AFP count of official Israeli numbers, these breaches occurred frequently during the attack on October 7, 2023, in which 1,206 people died, mostly civilians. The report also talked about the controversial topic of how many of the nearly 43,500 people killed in Gaza so far were civilians, according to the Palestinian health minister. UN organizations have had to rely on death tolls provided by the Gaza government due to their inability to access Gaza, which is under Hamas control. Although Israel has criticized this, the UN has repeatedly stated that the numbers are accurate. The rights office had confirmed about 10,000 of the more than 34,500 deaths reported in the first six months of the war.

“So far, we’ve found that close to 70% are children and women,” Sunghay stated, highlighting the stringent verification process that requires at least three different sources. He said that the results showed “a pattern of breaking the basic rules of international humanitarian law.

” He said that 4,700 of the confirmed deaths were children and 2,461 were adults. The rights office found that Israeli strikes on homes or other similar buildings were responsible for about 80% of all confirmed deaths in Gaza.

The victims were mostly kids between the ages of five and nine. The youngest was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a woman who was 97 years old. Israel claims that its actions in Gaza are legitimate and intended to thwart terrorism.But Friday’s report made it clear that most of the confirmed deaths were civilians from Gaza and not fighters.

It said that this clearly “raises concerns regarding compliance with the principle of distinction and reflects an apparent failure to take all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least to minimize, incidental loss of civilian life.” UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged all nations to cooperate in halting violations and ensuring accountability, including through universal authority. He stated, “Credible and fair judicial bodies must take accusations of serious violations of international law seriously.

“”We must focus on sending tons of food and other supplies to Gaza, stop the violence immediately, and free the hostages and people detained without a reason.”