GENEVA (UN) – The United Nations denounced increasing civilian casualties in Gaza as the agency confirmed that women and children make up nearly 70% of the more than 43,000 casualties since October 2023. The UN human rights office, or OHCHR, released a stark report Friday, describing pervasive violations of international law amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly even genocide.
The UN report brought to the fore the humanitarian cost of Israel’s actions, especially the impact of the “complete siege” imposed on Gaza- with huge casualties resulting from airstrikes, and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
According to the report, “civilians in Gaza have borne the brunt of attacks, including through the initial ‘complete siege’ of Gaza by Israeli forces”. The OHCHR reports that mass deaths, injuries, displacement, and serious shortages of food, water, and medical supplies have been the consequence of the conduct of Israel.
The UN report charges that the actions of Israel have denied the affected population access to essential humanitarian assistance while leveling civilian buildings and dislodging thousands of civilians. The report concluded that 80% of all the confirmed casualties in Gaza were due to Israeli aerial bombardments of residential areas.
The Israeli UN mission in Geneva rejected the findings and claimed the OHCHR was biased against the state. “The manifest obsession of OHCHR with demonizing Israel is very clear in this report,” said an Israeli spokesperson in response to the country’s defense of its legal airstrikes.
Disproportionate Losses
The UN report indicated that out of the 43,000 deaths reported in Gaza, 30,000 were civilians. According to it, the verification process-the process of verifying by at least three independent sources-the murdered civilians indicated that 70% were women and children.
In addition, it indicated that 4,700 were children and 2,461 were women out of the verified number of deaths. The youngest verified victim was the one who died just a day after birth, and the oldest one was a 97-year-old lady.
Such deaths are unparalleled, said the UN’s Sunghay, adding that “the findings reveal a systematic violation of international humanitarian law.” Most of the these deaths happened within residential buildings, which is not an acceptable military target.
Humanitarian Crisis and Arms Debate
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called on the international community to bring the violence to an end, citing that the circumstances warranted accountability, but this would be through independent judicial bodies. He also called for more humanitarian aid in Gaza and demanded the release of hostages and detainees.
In this regard, it also attacked the international support that Israel has received especially in the form of weapons, coming from countries such as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The executive director of HRW said it was time to end the sale of weapons to Israel, further stating that this military supply in light of possible war crimes only diminishes the credibility of those Western governments, as well as the global community, which have always talked about human rights.
“If governments know their weapons are being used in war crimes, they should stop the sales and transfers,” Hassan said, calling for accountability and to secure the influence of Western countries to restrict Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon.
This latest UN report has amplified global calls for an end to the violence and accountability for all parties involved.
