The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

Several United Nations agencies are again sounding the alarm on the rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions in much of Gaza and the civilian toll of more than a year of Israeli military operations.

Nearly 7 out of 10 of the deaths in Gaza amid the yearlong war in the region were women and children, the United Nations said in a sprawling report Friday that faulted Israel for a devastating