The Fort Worth Press - UN probe says women, children comprise the majority of Gaza war dead

USD -
AED 3.673005
AFN 68.386442
ALL 93.021933
AMD 389.349314
ANG 1.803734
AOA 913.000031
ARS 1002.721397
AUD 1.53358
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.702057
BAM 1.854577
BBD 2.020785
BDT 119.602116
BGN 1.858799
BHD 0.376916
BIF 2956.030306
BMD 1
BND 1.344124
BOB 6.930721
BRL 5.790848
BSD 1.000863
BTN 84.433613
BWP 13.672612
BYN 3.275301
BYR 19600
BZD 2.017372
CAD 1.39639
CDF 2864.999911
CHF 0.88374
CLF 0.035265
CLP 973.069559
CNY 7.241401
CNH 7.24719
COP 4396.59
CRC 508.251983
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.558213
CZK 24.0877
DJF 178.22092
DKK 7.087555
DOP 60.364405
DZD 133.750861
EGP 49.678296
ERN 15
ETB 124.782215
EUR 0.950275
FJD 2.269701
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.791103
GEL 2.740301
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.887842
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000247
GNF 8627.008472
GTQ 7.726299
GYD 209.391416
HKD 7.782965
HNL 25.291226
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.472895
HUF 390.756993
IDR 15903.25
ILS 3.732285
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.493503
IQD 1311.043259
IRR 42092.505939
ISK 138.290123
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.639851
JOD 0.709302
JPY 154.656495
KES 129.249619
KGS 86.506766
KHR 4038.536303
KMF 467.499881
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1398.125025
KWD 0.30759
KYD 0.834076
KZT 497.17423
LAK 21976.521459
LBP 89633.50686
LKR 291.187013
LRD 181.150969
LSL 18.152914
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.883414
MAD 9.998293
MDL 18.214834
MGA 4685.233124
MKD 58.48862
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.024142
MRU 39.785889
MUR 46.412517
MVR 15.460006
MWK 1735.461174
MXN 20.325297
MYR 4.464971
MZN 63.950307
NAD 18.152914
NGN 1680.590024
NIO 36.829479
NOK 11.03348
NPR 135.09167
NZD 1.703345
OMR 0.385001
PAB 1.000778
PEN 3.7981
PGK 4.029035
PHP 59.039501
PKR 278.226704
PLN 4.126669
PYG 7838.117183
QAR 3.649699
RON 4.729799
RSD 111.205995
RUB 101.000437
RWF 1380.157217
SAR 3.754257
SBD 8.355531
SCR 13.619994
SDG 601.497088
SEK 11.030315
SGD 1.343699
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.575045
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.975839
SRD 35.43028
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.757041
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.142596
THB 34.647019
TJS 10.658746
TMT 3.5
TND 3.159078
TOP 2.342102
TRY 34.465475
TTD 6.776157
TWD 32.567494
TZS 2652.359028
UAH 41.269214
UGX 3693.413492
UYU 42.784805
UZS 12854.406494
VES 46.433371
VND 25422.5
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.001915
XAG 0.032192
XAU 0.000375
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.761528
XOF 622.001915
XPF 113.087675
YER 249.924998
ZAR 18.116198
ZMK 9001.198706
ZMW 27.697968
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

UN probe says women, children comprise the majority of Gaza war dead
UN probe says women, children comprise the majority of Gaza war dead / Photo: © AFP

UN probe says women, children comprise the majority of Gaza war dead

The UN on Friday condemned 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.

Text size:

In a fresh report, slammed by Israel, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) detailed a raft of violations of international law since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack in Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

Many could amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly even "genocide", it warned, demanding international efforts to prevent "atrocity crimes" and ensure accountability.

"Civilians in Gaza have borne the brunt of the attacks, including through the initial 'complete siege' of Gaza by Israeli forces," the UN said.

"Conduct by Israeli forces has caused unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness and disease."

It 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".

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva "categorically" rejected the report, decrying "the inherent obsession of OHCHR with the demonisation of Israel".

- 'Dystopia of destruction' -

"Gaza is now a rubble-strewn landscape," Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN rights office's activities in the Palestinian territories, said via video-link from Amman.

"Within this dystopia of destruction and devastation, those alive are left injured, displaced and starving."

Friday's report also found that Hamas and other armed groups had committed widespread violations that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including seizing hostages, killings, torture and sexual violence.

Those violations, it said, were especially committed in connection with the October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly of civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

- 'Systematic violation' -

The report also tackled the contentious issue of the proportion of civilians among the nearly 43,500 people killed in Gaza so far, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.

UN agencies have been relying on death tolls provided by the authorities in Hamas-run Gaza due to lack of access. This has sparked harsh criticism from Israel but the UN has repeatedly said the figures are reliable.

The rights office said it had now managed to verify around 10,000 of the more than 34,500 people reportedly killed during the first six months of the war.

"We have so far found close to 70 percent to be children and women," Sunghay said, highlighting the stringent verification methodology that requires at least three separate sources.

He said the findings indicated "a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law".

He said 4,700 of the verified fatalities were children and 2,461 were women.

- 'Unprecedented' -

The rights office found that about 80 percent of all the verified deaths in Gaza had occurred in Israeli attacks on residential buildings or similar housing.

Children between the ages of five and nine made up the largest group of victims, with the youngest victim a one-day-old boy and the oldest a 97-year-old woman, it said.

Israel says its operations in Gaza target militants and are in line with international law.

But Friday's report stressed that the verified deaths largely Gaza's demographic makeup rather than that of combatants.

This, it said, clearly "raises concerns regarding compliance with the principle of distinction and reflect an apparent failure to take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimise, incidental loss of civilian life".

UN rights chief Volker Turk called on all countries to work to halt the violations and to ensure accountability, including through universal jurisdiction.

"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," he said.

"The violence must stop immediately, the hostages and those arbitrarily detained must be released, and we must focus on flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid."

P.Navarro--TFWP