UN Says Nearly 50,000 Women and Girls Killed or Injured in Gaza Since 2023
UN Women estimates that more than 38,000 women and girls have been killed and around 11,700 seriously injured in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The agency says roughly one in every 21 women and girls in the enclave is dead or permanently disabled, a number that changes how governments and publics have to think about the war’s toll.
The United Nations’ gender agency says the war in Gaza has reached a point where statistics themselves carry a kind of shock: by its estimates, nearly one in every 21 women and girls in the territory has been killed or left with a permanent disability since October 2023.
UN Women said that more than 38,000 women and girls have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israeli military operations began after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks, and that around 11,700 others have been seriously injured. Together, the agency calculates that close to 50,000 women and girls are dead or have been left with lasting injuries in a territory that, even before the war, struggled with fragile health care and limited support services.
The figures are estimates based on the broader casualty data available to the UN, disaggregated by gender and age. Precise verification in a war zone where hospitals have been struck, records destroyed and large parts of the population displaced is extremely difficult. But the numbers point to a scale of harm that goes well beyond the usual ratios seen in most conflicts, reflecting both the density of Gaza’s population and the intensity of urban bombardment over nearly two years.
For women and girls in Gaza, the impact is not only in the raw casualty count. Many have lost partners and children, becoming single heads of household overnight in a setting where homes, schools, clinics and workplaces have been damaged or erased. Those who survived serious injuries now face permanent disabilities in a strip of land where rehabilitation centers are overwhelmed, electricity and medical supplies are unreliable, and basic mobility aids can be scarce.
The burden also falls on those still physically uninjured. Women often shoulder responsibility for finding food, water and medicine, caring for wounded relatives, and trying to keep some form of family life together in shelters, tents or crowded apartments. For girls, disrupted schooling, trauma and early marriage risks are all intensified when the adults around them are themselves in crisis.
Strategically and diplomatically, the UN Women report adds weight to calls for stronger protection of civilians and for accountability under international humanitarian law. Senator Jon Ossoff in the United States, for example, said this week that while the question of genocide is for the International Criminal Court, in his view Israeli forces in Gaza have violated the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law. Statements like his remain politically contentious, but casualty estimates like those from UN Women give such critiques a sharper evidentiary backbone.
Israel has repeatedly argued that Hamas embeds military assets in civilian areas and bears responsibility for much of the civilian death toll, framing its operations as self‑defense after the 7 October massacre. It says it issues warnings and seeks to limit harm, and accuses Hamas of inflating casualty figures. The UN and most humanitarian organizations, while acknowledging Hamas tactics, have nonetheless warned that the scale and pattern of strikes in Gaza breach proportionality and distinction principles that are core to the laws of war.
Beyond legal arguments, the numbers matter for regional stability. High female and child casualty figures feed anger in neighboring Arab states, pressure governments that have normalized ties with Israel, and shape public opinion in Europe and North America, where support for Israel’s war aims has already become more contested. As one observer put it, pictures of wounded children and grieving mothers have become central to how people understand this conflict thousands of kilometers away.
A sober way to read the UN Women estimate is this: in less than two years, Gaza has lost a generation of women and girls not only to death, but to injuries that will define the rest of their lives. That has implications for health systems, labor markets, family structures and politics long after any ceasefire.
The next key signals to watch will be updated casualty and displacement data from UN agencies, any formal moves by international courts related to alleged violations in Gaza, and whether donor governments adjust their positions or aid contributions in response to mounting evidence about who is bearing the brunt of the war. For Gazans themselves, the most immediate question remains whether bombing patterns change in ways that actually reduce the risk for those who have already lost so much.
Sources
- OSINT