GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center)The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said the Israeli occupation army killed an average of 21.3 women per day since it began committing genocide in October 2023, equivalent to approximately one Palestinian woman every hour, not counting other women who have died as a result of the crimes of siege, starvation and denial of medical care, which are not documented in the statistics.
The Euro-Med Monitor said in a press statement on Sunday that the shocking and unprecedented rates of the killing of women in the Gaza Strip reflect a systematic pattern of mass murder deliberately targeting Palestinian women, especially mothers, whether in their homes, displacement tents, or temporary shelters, or while trying to save their children from the bombardment.
The Euro-Med stressed that the pattern of the repeated daily targeting confirms that Israel is using the killing of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip as a tool of demographic destruction within the crime of genocide.
It added that field data reveals a systematic pattern of killing pregnant women and young mothers with their children, or while trying to care for and protect their families, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and as a behavior that directly threatens the future of the Palestinian population.
The human rights group noted that its field team has documented the killing of thousands of women, many of them of childbearing age, including thousands of mothers who were killed with their children inside their homes, in displacement tents and shelters, or while fleeing in search of safety.
Official health data confirms that 12,400 Palestinian women have been killed during 582 days of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The Euro-Med confirmed that the data indicates that the killing rates among mothers, pregnant women, and nursing mothers have risen to unprecedented levels as a result of direct Israeli shelling.
The Euro-Med pointed out that Israeli targeting is not limited to killing, as there are 60,000 pregnant women, according to the Ministry of Health, currently suffering from extremely poor conditions as a result of malnutrition, hunger, and lack of adequate health care due to the tight siege and the prevention of the entry of aid and humanitarian supplies since the beginning of March.
It warned that the killing of Palestinian women and mothers, especially pregnant women, is part of a clear pattern of forced prevention of births, which is classified as a fundamental pillar of the crime of genocide, according to Article 2(d) of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, which considers “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” to be an act of genocide.
It also noted that Palestinian mothers suffer from complex psychological distress as a result of losing their children, husbands, or homes, and their feelings of complete helplessness in protecting their families or providing for their basic needs, as well as insecurity and repeated displacement, all of which exacerbate anxiety, depression, and severe psychological trauma.
Abeer H., a mother of four from Gaza City, said: “We have been displaced more than 10 times and have survived many bombings. I cannot reassure my children. Every night they sleep to the sound of bombing, and I cry for fear that I will wake up and find none of them alive. I have witnessed the tragedy of mothers and children being lost. I have become a mother without power, without food.”
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory called on all states, individually and collectively, to assume their legal responsibilities and take urgent action to stop the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms, to take all effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians there, and to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, and to ensure that it is held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.
