Average of 47 women and girls killed daily during Gaza war, UN says
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative file photo — Mourners react as they attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Nov. 20, 2025. (REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas)
By Olivia Le Poidevin (Reuters)
GENEVA - An average of at least 47 women and girls were killed each day during the war in Gaza, according to figures published by U.N. Women on Friday, and the agency warned that deaths have continued six months into a fragile ceasefire.
More than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, according to the report by U.N. Women, an agency that focuses on gender equality.
"Women and girls accounted for a proportion of deaths far higher than those observed in previous conflicts in Gaza," Sofia Calltorp, the agency's humanitarian action head, told reporters in Geneva.
"They were individuals with lives and with dreams," she added.
The agency expressed concern that the killing of women and girls has continued since an October ceasefire, though it does not know exactly how many have died due to a lack of gender-aggregated data.
October's ceasefire halted two years of full-scale war but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone that makes up well over half of Gaza, with Hamas in power in the remaining, narrow, coastal strip.
More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to local medics, while militants have killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas have traded blame for ceasefire violations.
Israel says it aims to thwart attacks by Hamas and other militant factions.
U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Friday that children continued to be killed and injured at an alarming rate in Gaza, with at least 214 reported dead in the last six months.
Around one million women and girls are displaced in Gaza, U.N. Women said.
"Extensive damage to infrastructure has made it almost impossible for women and girls in Gaza to access their basic needs like healthcare," said Calltorp.
World Health Organization figures show more than 500,000 women lack access to essential services including antenatal and postnatal care and management of sexually transmitted infections.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Aidan Lewis // REUTERS)
