The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
The UN figures cover the first seven months of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which began more than a year ago.
The total of 8.119 confirmed casualties reported by the UN Human Rights Office during this seven-month period is significantly lower than the figure of more than 43.000 deaths provided by Palestinian health authorities over the full 13 months of conflict.
The UN analysis of the age and gender of the victims, however, supports Palestinian claims that women and children make up a large share of those killed in the war.
This finding points to “systematic violations of fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including the distinction between civilians and combatants and proportionality,” stated the UN Human Rights Office in a 32-page report.
“It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.
Israel did not immediately comment on the report’s findings.
The Israeli military, which began its offensive in response to an October 7th, 2023, attack in which Hamas fighters killed around 1.200 people in southern Israel and took more than 250 hostages, claims to take precautions to avoid harming civilians in Gaza.
The military states that approximately one civilian is killed for every combatant, a ratio it attributes to Hamas, alleging that the Palestinian group uses civilian sites. Hamas denies using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.
The youngest victim confirmed dead by UN monitors was a one-day-old baby boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman, the report said.
Overall, children account for 44% of the victims, with children aged five to nine forming the largest single age group, followed by those aged 10 to 14, and then those under four years old.
This generally reflects the enclave’s demographics, which the report says highlight an apparent failure to take precautions to prevent civilian casualties.
It showed that in 88% of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack, pointing to the Israeli military’s use of weapons with an effect across a wide area, although it said some fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.
