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, including access to healthcare and shelter, remain nearly nonexistent.
Despite the challenges, women-led civil society groups in Gaza are continuing to work on the ground with support from UN Women. But the agency said current aid efforts are nowhere near enough to meet the overwhelming need.
The agency renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and arbitrarily detained individuals, and the urgent restoration of unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza.
The estimate builds on research published in The Lancet earlier this year, which found that Gaza’s death toll may be undercounted by as much as 41 percent, largely due to the collapse of health and reporting infrastructure across the strip.
Since the start of the war on 7 October 2023, more than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The humanitarian toll has continued to climb, with at least 3,193 Palestinians reported killed since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March following the collapse of a short-lived ceasefire.
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