UN: Almost 70% of the victims of the war in Gaza are women and children

The UN human rights office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the Gaza war, saying its analysis shows that close to 70% of the verified victims over a six-month period were women and children.

The agency said the high toll was largely due to Israel's use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas, although some deaths may have been the result of errant shells by Palestinian armed groups.

The report said it found "unprecedented" levels of violations of international law, raising concerns about "war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes".

Israel has in the past said it targets Hamas and takes steps to mitigate the risk to civilians by using precision munitions.

The BBC contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment in response to Friday's report.

The UN agency said it verified details of 8,119 people killed in Gaza from November 2023 to April 2024.

Her analysis revealed that about 44% of the verified victims were children and 26% were women. The most represented ages among the dead were between five and nine years old.

About 80% of the victims were killed in residential buildings or similar dwellings, the agency added.

 Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN sees as reliable, 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 bombed buildings.

The health ministry said it obtained complete demographic data for most of those killed and reported that children make up one-third of that number.

UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement that "this unprecedented level of killing and wounding of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to respect basic principles of international humanitarian law."