‘Nowhere safe’: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed only women and children, says UN

An analysis of 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza, Palestine showed only women and children were killed, the United Nations (UN) said on Friday and decried the human cost of the war in the Middle East.

“Between March 18 and April 9 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people,” UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, according to a report by news agency AFP.

Shamdasani warned the military strikes across Gaza were “leaving nowhere safe”. “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 UN rights office also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

“Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by our Office,” Shamdasani said.

Shamdasani cited an April 6 strike on a residential building of the Abu Issa family in Deir al Balah, which reportedly killed one girl, four women, and one four-year-old boy.

Expanding the number of Israeli “evacuation orders”

She highlighted that even the areas where Palestinians were being instructed to go in the expanding number of Israeli “evacuation orders” were also being subjected to attacks.

“Despite Israeli military orders instructing civilians to relocate to the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis, strikes continued on tents in that area housing displaced people, with at least 23 such incidents recorded by the Office since March 18,” she said.

At least 39 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since early Sunday morning until April 6, medical sources told Al Jazeera, marking one of the deadliest days in recent weeks as the conflict continues to intensify.

The assault comes amid an Israeli blockade that has prevented the delivery of food, fuel, and humanitarian supplies into Gaza for over a month, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned earlier this week.

Shamdasani referred to a March 31 order by the Israeli military covering all of Rafah, the southernmost governorate in Gaza, followed by a large-scale ground operation.

Israel has said its troops are seizing “large areas” in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

“Large areas are being seized and added to Israel's security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated,” Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.

“Let us be clear, these so-called evacuation orders are actually displacement orders, leading to the displacement of the population of Gaza into ever-shrinking spaces,” Shamdasani said.

Unrest is growing in northern Gaza as dozens of Palestinians took to the streets of Jabaliya to protest against Hamas and the war. Footage circulating online showed crowds chanting against the militant group. Though rare, such demonstrations have increased in recent weeks.

“The permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territories amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it is a crime against humanity,” she said.

The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. As of now, 59 hostages remain in Gaza—24 are believed to be alive.

Since the conflict resumed last month, Israel’s offensive has killed at least 50,695 Palestinians and wounded 115,338 more, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. While the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, it says more than half the dead are women and children.

Israel claims to have killed around 20,000 militants.

(With AFP inputs)