Nearly 70% of Gaza war fatalities are women and children: UN

The UN Human Rights Office said on Nov 8 that nearly 70 per cent of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

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The United Nations tally since the start of the war between Israel's military and Hamas militants, which began more than a year ago, includes only fatalities it has managed to verify with three sources, and counting continues.

The 8,119 victims verified by the UN Rights Office in that seven-month period is considerably lower than the toll of more than 43,000 provided by the Palestinian health authorities for the 13-month-old 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.

This finding indicates "a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality", the UN Rights Office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.