Nearly 70% of Gaza dead are women and children, UN reports

By Henry Moore

Women and Children make up nearly 70% of the victims of Israel’s war in Gaza, the UN’s Human Rights office has said.

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Looking at the 11 months since October 7, 2023, the United Nations verified 8,119 victims in total, 2,036 women and 3,588 children.

That 8,119 figure is far lower than the 43,000 reported dead by the Hamas Health Ministry, which the UN claims to be unreliable.

From October 7, 2023 to September 2, 2024 almost half of the victims of Israel’s bombardment were children (44%) while women made up 26%.

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Children aged between 10-14 are most likely to have been killed, followed by babies under four.

The youngest victim verified by the UN was a one-year-old baby, the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.

88% of the time, five or more people were killed in the same attack.

The UN report highlights the clear civilian loss of Israel’s campaign in Palestein, accusing the IDF "an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare".

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said: "This unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law."

Israel began its bombardment following Hamas October 7 attack on the country, which killed 1,200 people and saw over 200 civilians taken hostage.

The Israeli Defence Force claims to do its utmost to avoid civilian casualties, a suggested widley rejected by the UN’s report.

It also accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

The report claimed that "in most instances, the IDF did not offer substantial evidence to support their allegations [of the use of human shields], and OHCHR has not been able separately to verify them".