NINE months after a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, the United Nations says the enclave remains lethal territory for civilians. The UN Human Rights Office has verified the killing of more than 600 Palestinians since October 2025 – including 269 women and children – and cautions that the true toll may be higher, with verification work still under way.
The disclosure came from UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al Kheetan, who told reporters in Geneva that the Israeli military “has intensified its attacks in Gaza in recent days, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians – children, women and men.” He said the strikes had hit residential buildings, at least one tent sheltering internally displaced people, and other crowded areas.
“Nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza,” Al Kheetan said, framing a ceasefire that has now stretched across three-quarters of a year without delivering the security it promised.
A WIDENING GAP BETWEEN TWO DEATH TOLLS
Two figures now sit side by side in the reporting on Gaza’s death toll since October 2025, and the distinction matters. The Palestinian Ministry of Health puts the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since October at more than 1,100. The UN Human Rights Office, whose figures rely on a slower, individually corroborated verification process, has so far confirmed 600 of those deaths – a reminder that the office’s numbers represent a documented floor, not a final count, and are likely to rise as verification continues.
Of the 600-plus verified killings, the UN office said 269 were women and children, with most recorded in Israeli attacks reported across the Gaza Strip.
A SINGLE WEEK: 57 DEAD, MOST FAR FROM THE ‘YELLOW LINE’
The most recent data paints a picture of an escalation rather than a wind-down. Between 13 and 20 July alone, the UN Human Rights Office recorded that the Israeli military killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women. Of particular concern to the office: 34 of those victims – the majority – were killed away from the Israeli-imposed “yellow line”, the informal demarcation Israeli forces have used to define access-restricted zones inside Gaza.
On 17 and 18 July, ten Israeli attacks across Gaza City, Middle Gaza, North Gaza and Khan Younis killed at least 21 Palestinians, including four children and three women, according to information gathered by the UN office. In one of those strikes, on an apartment in Gaza City, five members of a single family were reportedly killed together — both parents and three siblings, aged eight, 15 and 17.
“The killing of civilians in these attacks raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes in Gaza. Under international law, deliberately attacking civilians is a war crime.”
THAMEEN AL KHEETAN, UN HUMAN RIGHTS SPOKESPERSON
A SHRINKING STRIP, A MOVING LINE
Al Kheetan’s briefing placed particular emphasis on the trajectory of the “yellow line” itself, which he said the Israeli occupying power has continued to push westward, compressing the area in which Gaza’s population can seek safety. He said Israeli forces “appear to routinely fire on Palestinians for mere presence in the vicinity of that line,” a practice he characterised as a violation of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
It is important to note that the characterisation of specific incidents as war crimes or atrocity crimes remains, at this stage, an assessment advanced by the UN Human Rights Office rather than a finding by a court or an international tribunal. No formal judicial determination has yet been made on the incidents cited in this briefing, and The African Mirror was unable to independently verify the Geneva-based figures or locate a public response from the Israeli military at the time of publication. Both the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s toll and the UN office’s lower, verified figure should be read with that distinction in mind.
UN RENEWS CALL FOR CEASEFIRE ENFORCEMENT
Al Kheetan closed his briefing with a direct appeal to the international community. “The violations, the suffering and the misery that continue to be imposed on the Palestinians in Gaza cannot be ignored,” he said. “Third States must take urgent action to insist on full respect for the ceasefire, to put an end to all violations, and to ensure accountability and justice.”
The statement adds to a growing body of UN reporting suggesting that the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, though formally in place, has not translated into a durable halt in hostilities on the ground — a gap between diplomatic declaration and lived reality that continues to define the war’s ninth month of nominal truce.
