UN probe: 70 pct of Gaza victims women, children
GENEVA
The U.N. condemned on Nov. 8 the staggering number of civilians killed in Israel's war in Gaza, with women and children comprising nearly 70 percent of the thousands of fatalities it had managed to verify.
In a fresh report, the United Nations human rights office detailed the "horrific reality" that has unfolded for civilians in both Gaza and Israel.
It detailed a vast array of violations of international law, warning that many could amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly even "genocide.”
"The report shows how civilians in Gaza have borne the brunt of the attacks, including through the initial 'complete siege' of Gaza by Israeli forces," the U.N. said.
It also pointed to "the Israeli government's continuing unlawful failures to allow, facilitate and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and repeated mass displacement.”
The report took on the contentious issue of the proportion of civilians figuring among the now nearly 43,500 people killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Palestinian territory.
Due to a lack of access, U.N. agencies have since the beginning of the Gaza war relied on death tolls provided by the authorities in Hamas-run Gaza.
The rights office said it had now managed to verify 8,119 of the more than 34,500 people reportedly killed during the first six months of the war, finding "close to 70 percent to be children and women.”
This, it said, indicated "a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality.”
Of the verified fatalities, 3,588 of them were children and 2,036 were women, the report said.
