Around 70 percent of deaths in Gaza are women and children, says UN

Several United Nations agencies are again sounding the alarm on the rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions in much of Gaza and the civilian toll of more than a year of Israeli military operations.

In a detailed report verifying fatalities in Gaza in the first six months of the conflict, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said it “found close to 70 per cent to be children and women, indicating a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law” on the part of the Israeli military.

The continuation of these attacks “demonstrates an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare selected,” the report said.

It added that of the confirmed deaths, 80 percent were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, of which 44 percent were children and 26 percent were women.

OHCHR said it found a pattern showing “high numbers of babies and young children, women, older persons, and families killed together in residential buildings.”

UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk said the report showed that civilian casualties were “a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law – namely the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.”

He said that pattern continued “unabated, over one year after the start of the war.”

CNN has approached the Israeli government for a response to the OHCHR report.

The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said Friday that “at least 64 attacks against schools – almost two every day – were registered in the Gaza Strip last month.”

An estimated 128 people were reportedly killed in the strikes, many of them children, it added.

UNICEF said that, according to the latest estimates, nearly half of the attacks recorded in October happened in northern Gaza, “where renewed intense bombardments, mass displacement, and lack of sufficient aid are pushing children to the brink.”

The Israeli military has persistently alleged that Hamas uses schools and other facilities for displaced civilians as a cover for its operations.

UNICEF also said since the onset of hostilities more than 95 percent of schools in Gaza have been partially or completely destroyed.

A World Health Organization report on the availability of food in Gaza concluded Friday that there was “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip,” where many of the recent Israeli operations have focused.

“Starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas. Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” it said.

The report cited UN data that the number of aid shipments into the Gaza Strip was now lower than at any time over the past year. It said monitoring by the World Food Programme showed that in the second half of October the average number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip fell to just 58 per day, the lowest level since November last year.

Before the war began, around 500 commercial and aid trucks were entering Gaza each day.

The WHO report also said the price of food in Gaza had risen by 312 percent since the beginning of the conflict.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday that the report was “deeply alarming.” In a post on X, he said: “We call for an immediate scale-up and safe access for humanitarian aid — primarily food and medicines for severe malnutrition — within days not weeks.”

The Israeli agency that handles the transfer of aid to Gaza rejected the report warning of the prospect of famine in northern Gaza, saying such reports in the past “have been systematically based on organizations with vested interests and partial, inaccurate knowledge.”

In a statement to CNN, COGAT said the Israel Defense Forces “has repeatedly called on residents of northern Gaza to move away from high-intensity combat zones. Concurrent with the humanitarian response for the north, an extensive and evolving humanitarian effort is underway for central and southern Gaza.”

It added: “The IDF, via COGAT, operates in accordance with international law and continues to facilitate and ease the transfer of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Over the past two months, 39,000 trucks carrying over 840,000 tons of food have entered the Gaza Strip.”

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