The United Nations says Palestinian women and children were the only fatalities in at least three dozen Israeli air strikes on Gaza since mid-March, as it warned that Israel’s military offensive threatens Palestinians’ “continued existence as a group”.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday that the office had documented 224 Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for displaced people in the Gaza Strip between March 18 and April 9.
“In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children,” she said.
The findings come as Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 1,500 Palestinians since the Israeli military broke a ceasefire in March, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel also has imposed a total blockade on the coastal Palestinian enclave, leading the UN and rights groups to warn that food, water, medicine and other critical supplies are quickly running out.
“More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York earlier this week.
“As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened. Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop.”
At least 15 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn on Friday.
That includes 10 members of a single family, including seven children, who were killed in the bombing of a home in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, many people have been trapped under the rubble across the territory as a result of Israeli attacks, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
“We have heard very horrific testimonies from civil defence crews saying that while they were rescuing Palestinians trapped under their destroyed homes,” he said.
“They were hearing the sounds of babies and the sound of children crying for help and shouting for any sort of rescue.”
‘Worse than ever’
Speaking to Al Jazeera later on Friday, Shamdasani, the UN human rights office spokesperson, said the situation in Gaza is “worse than it has ever been before”.
Palestinians are being forcibly transferred into increasingly small areas, she said, while Israeli military attacks continue, humanitarian aid is blocked, and Israeli officials are conditioning assistance on the release of captives held in the enclave.
“As we have said today, in light of the cumulative impact of the Israeli forces’ conduct in Gaza, we are concerned that Israel appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life that are increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza,” she said.
Israel has vowed to press on with its military offensive, with officials in recent days outlining plans to seize new swathes of territory in southern Gaza. The Israeli military has also issued a series of evacuation orders.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said about 400,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced across Gaza since the ceasefire ended on March 18.
“They are now also enduring by far the longest blockage of aid and commercial supplies since the start of the war,” UNRWA said in a post on X urging unimpeded humanitarian access.
