“Six months into the war, 10,000 Palestinian women in Gaza have been killed, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned,” it said.
The report noted more than 1 million Palestinian women and girls in the Strip are facing “catastrophic hunger”, with almost no access to food, safe drinking water, functioning toilets or running water, creating life-threatening risks.
“One child is injured or dies every 10 minutes,” it added.
“Women who have survived the bombing are suffering daily starvation, sickness, and constant fear. The war in Gaza is no doubt a war on women, who are paying a heavy price for a war not of their making”, stated Susanne Mikhail, Regional Director of UN Women in the Arab States at a media briefing in Geneva.
A UNICEF official has also said children in Gaza have become the faces of the continuing war as their stories paint a “harrowing picture” of the human consequences of the conflict,
“Children are wearing a tremendous share of the scars of this war,” UNICEF communications specialist Tess Ingram – who left Gaza on Monday after spending two weeks there – told a UN press briefing in Geneva.
More than 12,000 children were injured in Gaza since October 7, 2023, she added, and this is “almost certainly an underestimate”.
“With at least 70 children injured every day, we need the number of medical evacuations to increase so children can access the care they urgently need. And with one child killed or injured every 10 minutes, above anything else we need a ceasefire.”
A lasting truce “is the only way to stop the killing and maiming of children”.
At least 46 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health there reported on Tuesday, raising the total death toll to 33,843 people.
The ministry said that 76,575 Palestinians have been wounded.
