Six Times More Children and Women Killed in Palestine in Five Months Than in Ukraine in Two years
Orinoco Tribune, February 26, 2024 —
The number of women and children killed in nearly five months of Israeli attacks on Gaza is six times that of the ongoing war in Ukraine that has lasted 24 months.
This is revealed by a shocking report published this Saturday by the Turkish news agency Anadolu. The report indicates that in Ukraine, a total of 10,378 civilians have been killed, including 579 children and 2,992 women, since February 2022, while another 19,632 people have been injured, according to data provided by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission (HRMMU).
Comparatively, in Palestine, Israel’s genocidal campaign of aggression, launched since October 7, has claimed a total of more than 29,700 civilian lives, including at least 12,660 children and 8,570 women, and another 69 737 people have been injured, the report added.
The number of women and children victims of Israeli occupation genocidal war against Palestinian civilians over five months exceeds that of the war between Russia and Ukraine by six times.
The report comes as many human rights organizations and countless massive demonstrations worldwide have condemned the West’s double standards in dealing with conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. “The double standards of Western governments are a major threat to human rights,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said in November.
Last month, the UK-based NGO Oxfam reported that the daily death toll of Palestinians in Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of any other major conflict in the 21st century, making clear the brutality of the genocide launched by the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people. The NGO further warned that survivors, of whom 85 percent are displaced, remain at high risk due to hunger, disease, cold, and continued indiscriminate Israeli bombing.
Israel has been relentlessly bombing the Palestinian enclave, from air, land, and sea, using more than 66,000 tons of explosives in the attacks, with an average of 183 tons of explosives per square kilometer in Gaza, according to Palestinian sources.
International Criminal Court and genocide
As the one-month deadline for Israel to act to prevent possible genocide in Gaza — as ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — draws to an end, Tel Aviv is expected to submit its report on Monday on the measures it has taken, reported Anadolu on Sunday.
Despite a preliminary ruling in The Hague demanding Israel take measures to prevent acts of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention, the number of innocent civilians killed by the Israeli Occupation has only escalated.
The ICJ had also ordered the Israeli entity to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave, but the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported on Feb. 14 that the number of aid trucks entering Gaza had fallen far below the daily target of 500.
While Tel Aviv denies the allegations of genocide in a case brought forward by South Africa last year, it is required by the ICJ to report on all the steps taken to comply with the court’s order. Since the ICJ’s order, Israel has continued to attack hospitals, schools, and other civilian targets in Gaza, and has accused the ICC of stepping up its attacks. In the past week alone, over 100 Palestinians have been killed daily in Israeli attacks in Gaza. In addition to the thousands of people who have lost their lives, thousands more are feared to be buried under the rubble.