Gaza: 80 per cent of Palestinians killed in Israeli offensive are civilians, says UN

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US says it does not want to see a ground offensive in Gaza Strip that would put more civilians at risk, as United Nations says dozens of women and children are among the dead.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Daily Telegraph | UK
By Robert Tait | July 14, 2014

Four out of every five Palestinians killed during Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza have been civilians, including dozens of women and children, the United Nations said on Monday.

The statistic was disclosed by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) amid mounting international concern over non-combatant casualties during an operation Israeli officials have said is aimed solely at rooting out militants and stopping rockets being fired into Israel.

It came as pressure intensified for a ceasefire to a conflict that entered a seventh day on Monday, with the latest death toll climbing to 172, as Israel continued its bombardment and Hamas resumed its rocket fire after a brief pause.

The White House said it did not want to see an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip “because that would put even more civilians at risk”.

Of 160 deaths that had occurred by Sunday, 133 – 80 per cent – had been among Gaza's civilian population, OCHA said, including 35 children and 27 women. Only 26 were established to have belonged to "armed groups" while the status of another nine men was unverified.

 Some 296 children and 233 women have been among the 1,140 wounded, according to Gaza health ministry figures.

OCHA said its statistics had been checked and verified through a variety of sources.

The figures appeared to show a higher non-combatant casualty rate than that recorded in Israel's eight-day offensive against Gaza in November 2012, when 108 civilians were said to be among the 167 Palestinians killed.

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