In Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, two mothers are killed every hour, and seven women are killed every two hours, United Nations (UN) Women Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous said on Wednesday.
“Before October 7th, 67 percent of all civilians killed in the occupied Palestinian territory in the last 15 years were men, and less than 14 percent were women and girls. Since that date, that percentage has reversed,” Sima Sami Bahous said at the UN Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East,
She added:
“Not only is the number of civilians killed since October 7th more than double the total killed in the last 15 years, but women and children are now estimated to be 67 percent of the more than 14.000 killed in Gaza.”
According to her, before the current escalation, there were 650.000 women and girls in Gaza in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and now she estimates that number has increased to 1.1 million, including the nearly 800.000 internally displaced women.
“The women in Gaza told us that they pray for peace, but that if peace does not come, they pray for a quick death, in their sleep, with their children in their arms. We should be ashamed that any mother, anywhere, has such a prayer,” she added.
Israel launched brutal air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7th.
Authorities in Gaza said on Tuesday that the number of people killed from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave since then has reached 14.100, including more than 5.800 children and 3.900 women.
The number of people killed in Israel is about 1.200, the local authorities announced.
