Women and children make up the vast majority of those slaughtered by Israeli forces in Gaza amid the genocide, the UN has found in an eye-opening report that warns that Israel is committing “grave violations of international law” in Gaza that “may also constitute genocide.”
In a 31-page report published Friday, the UN Human Rights Office found that, of the thousands of killings the office was able to verify between the beginning of Israel’s genocide and September of this year, 44 percent were killings of children, while 26 percent were women — adding up to 70 percent of the death toll.
In other words, the report found that children made up the largest single group of people killed by Israel. The three age categories most represented were children aged between 5 and 9 years old; children between 10 and 14; and babies and toddlers aged 0 to 4.
The report says that the proportion of women and children killed are an indication of Israel’s widespread killings of civilians and “failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”
The civilian death toll is likely far higher than 70 percent, as Israeli forces have also adopted a practice of labeling all men in Gaza as affiliated with Hamas, without evidence, in order to justify their mass slaughter. On top of killing thousands of men, Israeli forces have rounded up Palestinian men and boys en masse — including health care workers — and abducted them to camps, where they face severe torture before being released, indefinite imprisonment, or death.
The agency noted that it was not able to verify more deaths because Israel’s assault has made humanitarian activities “extremely challenging,” with Israeli authorities blocking access to UN monitors and killing UN personnel.
The findings further contradict Israeli forces’ and U.S. officials’ repeated insistence, not backed by evidence, that Israel is taking the necessary steps to protect civilians amid the genocide.
As the report notes, as of April, though Israeli forces had killed over 34,000 Palestinians (if not far more, according to some estimates), they had only announced the names of 75 Palestinians specifically targeted for death.
Within the verified killings, about 80 percent were killed in residential buildings or other housing, the report found. Among those deaths, 88 percent were killed in incidents that killed five or more Palestinians — further underscoring the indiscriminate nature of Israel’s attacks.
The report contains some of the strongest UN-sanctioned language yet to describe Israel’s assault, saying it is likely that the widespread disregard for civilian protections under international law amounts to genocide.
“In many instances, the violations documented in this report by the parties could amount to war crimes,” the report says.
“If committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, further to a State or organizational policy, they may constitute crimes against humanity. If committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, they may also constitute genocide,” it goes on.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk called for Israel to immediately comply with numerous binding ICJ orders demanding an end to the Israeli military’s assault.
“It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved,” said Türk.
Unlike mainstream media, we’re not capitulating to Trump.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.