Head of the Norwegian Refugee Council calls for peace process to begin as new figures reveal civilians have borne the brunt of the war.
Nearly 70% of the people killed in the ongoing Gaza conflict are women and children, according to the UN. In a new report, the UN human rights office said it had verified 8,119 of those killed during the first six months of the war in Gaza. Of the fatalities, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women. The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.
The number is much lower than the 43,000 deaths provided by Palestinian health authorities for the 13-month conflict, but backs the assertion that women and children represent a large proportion of those killed. The new figures came as the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said people had been pushed “beyond breaking point” with families, widows and children enduring “almost unparalleled suffering”.
The UN said the figures indicated “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.” Of the verified figures, 7,607 were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, out of which 44% were children, 26% women and 30% men, said the report released on Friday. Children aged five to nine represent the single biggest age category, followed by those aged 10-14, and then those aged up to and including four. Civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks in Gaza, said the report, including through the initial siege by Israeli forces, as well as repeated mass displacement, the Israeli government’s failure to allow in humanitarian aid, and continual bombing.
This has caused unprecedented levels of killing, death, injury, starvation, illness and disease, according to the report which said many families had been killed together, often in their homes, in Israeli strikes on residential buildings. The UN said it had verified 484 families that had lost between five and more than 30 members. The killing of whole families together in their places of shelter adds to concerns over breaches of international humanitarian law, the report said The two families with the highest verified number of deaths were the Al Najjar family, with 138 members killed (in 18 incidents), including 35 women and 62 children, and the Al Astal family with 94 members killed (in eight incidents), including 33 women and 45 children.
Last week, Israel’s parliament passed bills banning Unrwa from operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, designating it a terror organisation, and cutting all ties between the UN agency and the Israeli government. Egeland said the situation in Gaza was “deadly” for all Palestinians, aid workers and journalists. He said that to prevent tens of thousands of lives being lost, there should be an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the start of a peace process. “Those in power on all sides act with impunity, while millions across Gaza and the region pay a terrible price,” he said. “Humanitarians can speak out on what we are seeing, but only those in power can end this nightmare.”
Rawr