UN Human Rights Chief: There must be “due reckoning” for horrific violations, possible atrocity crimes in Gaza

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that approximately 70% of the victims of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza are children and women, which indicates a "systematic violation of the basic principles of international human rights law, including discrimination and proportionality", confirming the need to hold Israel accountable for serious violations of international law.

It came out in the report published by the Commission, today Friday, about the violations during the period between November 2023 and April 2024, which describes in detail the process of killing civilians and violating international law, "which often amounts to war crimes".

The report said that "the International Court of Justice confirmed in a series of orders regarding temporary measures, the international obligations that fall on Israel to prevent acts of mass genocide and the prohibited practices associated with them and to protect them and punish their perpetrators".

The new findings are part of the "Six-month update report on the human rights situation in Gaza: 1 November 2023 to 30 April 2024" issued by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Key facts:

The main victims of strikes on residential buildings were children

Eighty-eight per cent of the verified fatalities were killed in incidents that killed five or more people (see Graph 2, Fatalities verified by OHCHR killed in residential buildings)

"OHCHR monitoring indicates that the high number of fatalities per attack was due to the IDF’s use of weapons with wide area effects in densely-populated areas."

Approximately 70% of the victims of Israeli war on Gaza are children and women:

Because of the conditions on the ground, verification by OHCHR staff is challenging, the verified number thus far confirm the figures released by the health authorities in Gaza. "The number of killings verified by OHCHR by 2 September 2024 stands at 8,119 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children (1,865 boys and 1,723 girls). Of these verified figures, 7,607 were killed in residential buildings or similar housing,19 out of which 44 per cent were children, 26 per cent women and 30 per cent men."

Children of Gaza: Feel us, world!