More than 28,000 Palestinian women and girls have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023, according to a new estimate released by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) on Monday, 19 May. That means, on average, one woman or girl has been killed every hour in Israeli attacks since the war began, many of them mothers, leaving behind grieving children and families. The figure is based on estimates that account for unreported deaths due to the collapse of Gaza’s health and reporting systems, with UN Women using adjusted data to better reflect the true scale of the toll on women and girls in the strip. Conditions in Gaza have worsened sharply since the collapse of the ceasefire in March 2025, with nearly nine weeks of complete aid blockade cutting off access to food, water, medicine, and fuel. Over one million women and girls in Gaza are now facing catastrophic hunger, UN Women warned. The humanitarian crisis is also exposing women to rising maternal mortality rates, displacement, and a total absence of safety or protection. Basic services,…
