More than 38,000 women and girls died in the war in Gaza, says UN

Palestine in a refugee camp covers their face after Israeli shelling collapses a building in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, on September 5, 2025. REUTERS/Ebrahim Hajjaj More than 38,000 women and girls died in the Gaza Strip between October 2023 and the end of 2025, according to data released by UN Women this Friday (17) – an average of 47 women and girls killed per day. “Between October 2023 and December 2025, more than 22,000 women and 16,000 girls died in Gaza, victims of aerial bombardment and Israeli ground military operations,” said UN Women spokesperson Sofia Calltorp during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The number represents more than half of the approximately 71,000 deaths recorded during this period, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, commanded by the terrorist group Hamas. “Women and girls account for a much higher proportion of deaths than in previous conflicts in Gaza,” Calltorp said. Deaths continue despite ceasefire UN Women has warned that deaths of women and girls have continued since the October ceasefire, although it is not known exactly how many have died due to a lack of aggregate data by gender. The October ceasefire ended two years of full-scale war but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone representing well more than 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 doctors, while Hamas terrorists have killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas exchanged accusations over ceasefire violations. The UN children’s agency Unicef ​​said on Friday that children continue to be killed and injured at an alarming rate in Gaza, with at least 214 deaths recorded in the last six months. Figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) also show that more than 500,000 women do not have access to essential services, including prenatal and postnatal care and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. “The extensive damage to infrastructure has made it nearly impossible for the women and girls of Gaza to access their basic needs, such as medical care,” Calltorp said. With information from Reuters and AFP.

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