as reliable<\/a>, has reported a death toll of more than 43,300 people over the past 13 months. Many more bodies are believed to remain under the rubble of bombarded buildings.<\/p>\nThe health ministry said it obtained full demographic data for a majority of those killed and reported that children account for one in three of that number.<\/p>\n
UN Human Rights Chief Volker T\u00fcrk said in a statement that \u201cthis unprecedented level of killing, and injury of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law\u201d.<\/p>\n
He cited the laws of distinction, which requires warring parties to distinguish between combatants and civilians, proportionality, which prohibits attacks where harm to civilians outweighs military advantage, and precautions in attacks.<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrk called for a \u201cdue reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The IDF has previously told the BBC in response to criticism that it \u201cwill continue to act, as it always has done, according to international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report also said the way the warring parties have conducted the conflict in Gaza has \u201ccaused horrific human suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n
The UN said Palestinian armed groups have waged war from densely-populated areas and indiscriminately used projectiles, likely contributing to the death toll, while the IDF has destroyed civilian infrastructure and \u201cleft many of those alive, injured, displaced and starving, without access to adequate water, food or healthcare\u201d.<\/p>\n
The situation is worst in north Gaza, which aid groups say has been under siege since early October when Israel launched a new ground offensive against Hamas.<\/p>\n
The UN said no food aid entered the north during the first two weeks of October.<\/p>\n
This prompted the US to issue an ultimatum to Israel to increase aid by 12 November or risk losing some military support.<\/p>\n
Jan Egeland, the head of aid organisation Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC on Friday that he saw \u201cdevastation, despair, beyond belief\u201d on a recent visit to Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is hardly a building that is not damaged. And large areas looked like Stalingrad after the Second World War. You cannot fathom how intense this indiscriminate bombing has been on this trapped population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s evident that it is first and foremost children and women who are paying a price for this senseless war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Israel launched its current military offensive in Gaza after Hamas\u2019 attack on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nov 9 \u2013 The UN\u2019s Human Rights Office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the war in Gaza, saying its analysis shows close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period were women and children. The agency said the high number was largely due to Israel\u2019s use of weapons with wide-area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}