Israel kills more women and children in Gaza than in any recent conflict – Oxfam
A woman in Gaza mourning a child killed in an attack on 6 May 2024
The Palestine Chronicle reports on 2 October 2024:
More women and children have been killed in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military over the past year than in the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, according to a new analysis by Oxfam.
Conservative figures show that more than 6,000 women and 11,000 children were killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past 12 months, the aid organization said in a press statement. It said data from 2004 to 2021 on direct conflict deaths from the Small Arms Survey, estimates that the highest number of women killed in a single year was over 2,600 in Iraq in 2016.
“These staggering figures are both appalling and heartbreaking,” Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Director said. She emphasized that “Influential actors in the international community have not only failed to hold Israel to account, they are also complicit in the atrocities by continuing to unconditionally supply it with arms.” “It will take generations to recover from the devastating impacts of this war and there is still no ceasefire in sight,” she added.
Strikes ‘Once Every Three Hours’
According to Oxfam, a report by the organization Every Casualty Counts examined information on over 11,000 children killed across the first 2.5 years of the Syria conflict, an average of over 4,700 deaths a year.
UN reports on Children and Armed Conflict over the last 18 years show that no other conflicts killed a higher number of children in one year.
Oxfam said separate data from Action on Armed Violence up to September 23 “shows that Israel hit civilian infrastructure across Gaza with explosive weapons once every three hours on average since the war began.”
“Other than the six-day humanitarian pause last November, there were just two days in the entire year without bombardment,” it added.