10,000 women killed since the start of the war

Nearly 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war six months ago and a child is wounded or killed every 10 minutes, UN agencies have warned, amid rising violence in the West Bank and concerns about a regional escalation of conflict following Iran’s attack on Israel.

Thus, according to a new report by UN Women, “Six months after the start of the war, 10,000 Palestinian women in Gaza have been killed, including around 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned.”

“More than a million women and girls in Gaza have almost no food, no access to clean water, toilets, toilets or sanitary napkins, and disease is increasing in the context of inhumane living conditions”the UN agency added.

Echoing these concerns, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new call for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza to rebuild hospitals, including the one in Al Shifa, which was “essentially destroyed” following recent Israeli military operations.

“Management is trying to clean up the emergency department (but) it’s just too much work to do just cleaning, let alone getting supplies,” said Tarik Jašarevic, WHO spokesman, after the UN health agency’s new mission on Monday to a devastated medical center in Gaza City.

Access is required

Only a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain functional, meaning it is essential “save what remains” of the health system of the enclave, insisted Jašarević.

But the need remains enormous with more than 76,000 injured, according to local authorities, and several UN agencies have repeatedly warned that amputations and C-section deliveries are taking place without anesthesia.

“Once again, we really call for the deconfliction mechanism to be effective, transparent and feasible,” a WHO official said, referring to the clearance system used by aid workers working with warring parties to try to ensure convoys are not targeted.

Concerns remain about deconfliction protocols after seven aid workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen were killed in Israeli airstrikes on April 1.

But “more than half” missions that the WHO planned in the period from last October to the end of March “they are either rejected, delayed or face other obstacles, so they have to be postponed. So we really need this approach,” Jašarević insisted, amid repeated warnings by humanitarians about imminent famine in Gaza.

No help for the injured

This means a shortage of staff, needles, sutures and other necessary medical equipment “injured children often languish in pain”in hospitals or makeshift shelters, noted Tess Ingram, communications specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Speaking from Cairo, Egypt, after her latest mission in northern Gaza, where her UN vehicle was attacked, Ms Ingram told reporters it was remarkable how many young people had been injured during intense Israeli bombardments, launched in response to bloody attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, October 7.

“Imagine for a moment that you are searched and interrogated for hours, told that you are safe, and then you leave, walking quickly down the street praying that everything is okay. But then you are shot, your father is killed and the bullet enters your pelvis causing serious internal and external injuries that will require reconstructive surgery. In the field hospital, Younis told me that this happened to him. He’s 14 years old,” she said.

A UNICEF official also stressed how difficult it is to evacuate injured or sick patients for medical care outside of Gaza. Less than half of all medical evacuation requests were approved, meaning only about 4,500 people – “for most children” – could leave Gaza at a rate of less than 20 per day.

A call from the head of human rights

Highlighting the difficult situation of the residents of Gaza, the UN High Representative for Human Rights Volker Türk called “all influential states” put an end to “increasingly terrible human rights and humanitarian crisis” which takes place there.

“Israel continues to impose illegal restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and to carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure”said the high commissioner for human rights, before repeating his calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages.

Escalation of violence in the West Bank

The High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed deep concern over the rise in violence and “waves of attacks” in recent days against Palestinians in the West Bank. “by hundreds of Israeli settlers, often accompanied or supported by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF)”.

Following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family, four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks, Türk said in a statement.

Citing information received by his office, OHCHR, the UN human rights chief reported that armed settlers and Israeli forces entered “a certain number of cities”, including Al Mughayyer, the village of Beitin in Ramallah, Duma and Qusra in Nablus, as well as the provinces of Bethlehem and Hebron.

Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured in the ensuing violenceand “hundreds of houses and other buildings, as well as cars, were set on fire”the high commissioner stated, before insisting that “Neither Palestinians nor Israelis should take the law into their own hands.”

Regional Trigger

In a similar context, the head of the high-level independent investigation into human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, appointed by the UN, said in Geneva “serious concern” faced with the possibility of a military escalation between Israel and Iran and the risks of triggering a regional conflict.

In a briefing to Arab League states days after Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel, Navi Pillay highlighted the scale “unprecedented” the war led by Israel.

To date, according to Gaza health authorities, more than 33,200 people have been killed, Pillay said, with about 40 percent of schools directly affected by the attacks and 1.7 million people internally displaced.

“The total siege of Gaza imposed from October 2023 has resulted in an unimaginable humanitarian disaster, and famine and starvation are now a reality for its residents,” said the head of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. “The destruction of roads and infrastructure seriously threatened the ability of humanitarian actors to provide aid to the population”she concluded.