Children stare at the destruction following an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 7, 2024. EYAD BABA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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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.
Israeli forces have announced their intention to block any Palestinians from returning to north Gaza. By Sharon Zhang, TRUTHOUT, November 6, 2024
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.
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and more. She has a master’s degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter: @zhang_sharon.
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