Nearly 70% of casualties in Gaza – women, children UN says 

Nearly 70 per cent of the casualties in Gaza are women and children proceeding from a report published in Geneva by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR).

"The OHCHR is verifying the personal details of those killed in Gaza as a result of airstrikes, shelling, and other military actions. To date, approximately 70 per cent of the victims have been women and children, highlighting a systematic violation of fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including selectivity and proportionality. Continued attacks "demonstrate a blatant disregard for the lives of civilians," the report states, Caliber.Az reports via Russian media.

OHCHR officials have verified information on 8,119 people killed in Gaza between November 2023 and April 2024. The list of casualties includes a particularly high number of children under the age of 14.

"Around 80 per cent out of the confirmed deaths were killed in residential houses or other dwellings, with 44 per cent being children and 26 per cent women," the OHCHR reported, emphasising that the high death toll was linked to the use of "weapons with widespread impact in densely populated areas" by the Israeli military. In some cases, casualties may also have been caused by shell explosions mistakenly fired by Palestinian armed groups. 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged UN member states to assess, in accordance with their obligations under international law, the sale or supply of weapons, as well as the provision of military, logistical, or financial support to any party involved in the conflict, with a view to halting such support if it leads to serious violations of international law. 

"Violence must cease immediately, hostages and those arbitrarily detained must be released, and we must focus on delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza," Turk added.

The situation in the Middle East escalated dramatically after infiltration by armed supporters of the Palestinian radical group Hamas from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. The attack was marked by the killing of residents in border towns and the kidnapping of over 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the enclave aimed at dismantling Hamas' military and political infrastructure and rescuing all the abducted individuals. The fighting in the Gaza Strip continues up till now.

By Naila Huseynova