Women and children make up two-thirds of Gaza dead

Women and children account for nearly 70 percent of all Palestinian deaths in Gaza verified by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), which has accused Israel of failing "to comply with the fundamental principles of humanitarian law".

- ANDY GREGORY

The UN Rights Office has so far verified the deaths of 8,119 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children over the first seven months of the war, triggered after Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took a further 250 hostage in its cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October.

The 8,119 victims verified is a lower number than the toll of more than 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the 13-month war. But the UN breakdown of the victims’ age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.

Around 80 per cent of deaths verified by UN monitors – using three different sources, such as neighbours, family members, and hospital records – occurred in residential buildings or similar housing, with children aged zero to 14 years old accounting for the age group most frequently killed, the UN office said in a new report.

The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest a 97year-old woman.