At least 47 women and girls have been killed on average every day during the war in Gaza, according to figures released on Friday by the UN's gender equality agency, UN Women, which warned that deaths continued six months after a fragile ceasefire came into force.
More than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, according to the report by the same United Nations agency that specializes in promoting gender equality.
Women and girls accounted for a much higher proportion of deaths than in previous conflicts in Gaza, Sofia Calltorp, UN Women's humanitarian officer, told a news conference in Geneva.
“They were people who had dreams,” she added.
The agency expressed concern that the killing of women and girls continued after the October ceasefire, but could not give an exact number of victims due to a lack of gender-disaggregated data.
The October truce ended two years of full-scale war, but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated area that makes up more than half of Gaza, while Hamas remained in power in the narrow strip of coast that remained.
More than 750 Palestinians have since been killed, according to local doctors, while militants have killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
Israel says it aims to prevent attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.
The UN children's agency UNICEF said on Friday that minors continue to be killed and injured at an alarming rate in Gaza, with at least 214 deaths reported in the past six months.
About one million women and girls are displaced in Gaza, according to UN Women.
“Extensive destruction of infrastructure has made it almost impossible for women and girls in Gaza to meet their basic needs, such as access to medical services,” said Sofia Calltorp.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that more than 500,000 women do not have access to essential services, including antenatal and postnatal care, as well as treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
