The United Nations says Palestinian women and children were the only fatalities in at least three dozen Israeli air strikes on Gaza since mid-March, as it warned that Israel’s military offensive threatens Palestinians’ “continued existence as a group”.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday that the office had documented 224 Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for displaced people in the Gaza Strip between March 18 and April 9.
“In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children,” she said.
The findings come as Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 1,500 Palestinians since the Israeli military broke a ceasefire in March, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel also has imposed a total blockade on the coastal Palestinian enclave, leading the UN and rights groups to warn that food, water, medicine and other critical supplies are quickly running out.
“More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York earlier this week.
“As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened. Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop.”
Palestinian rights group Al-Haq said findings by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that 36 Israeli attacks on Gaza had killed only women and children was further confirmation of a pattern previously identified.
“Israel is purposely targeting” women and children in Gaza, Al-Haq said, adding that both it and the UN’s international commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory and East Jerusalem had reached such a conclusion.
“Such a calculated effort to exterminate women, boys, girls & even infants, has not been witnessed in any other modern conflict,” Al-Haq said in a post on social media.
“While being targeted with heavy weaponry, they are forced to endure a total blockade on humanitarian aid – now for a 2nd month in a row,” the group said.