TEHRAN- Citing the terrible conditions in Gaza, Iran has said that Israel is ineligible to be a member of any organization devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women and children.

At least 165 workers of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have died in Israeli assaults since the start of the Gaza conflict, according to a UNRWA report quoted by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani on Thursday. 

In a post on X, he noted, “So far, more than 150 centers belonging to UNRWA, such as schools, have been bombed, some of which have been completely destroyed. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed in UN-affiliated centers in Gaza while searching for safe places.”

“A regime that does not value international humanitarian organizations and their missions and services, and even the lives of their employees, and has killed about 9,000 Palestinian women and 12,500 children in the last five months, does not have the qualification to be a member or remain in any of the human rights associations and international mechanisms related to the rights of women and children.”

At the beginning of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that women and girls make up almost two-thirds of those killed and injured during Israel’s bombardment on Gaza. 

Ensiyeh Khazali, the vice president of Iran for women’s and family affairs, addressed the gathering and urged the UN to remove Israel from the panel.

“The free people of the world expect the regime responsible for decades of displacement, rape and murder of millions of women and children, not to have a seat in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women,” she said.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza in early October, an estimated two mothers have died per hour, according to a January report by the UN office promoting gender equality. 

UN Women drew attention to gender disparity and the hardships faced by women who had to escape the conflict with their children and endure repeated displacement. 

It also stated that of the 2.3 million people living in the territory, 1.9 million are internally displaced, and “nearly one million are women and girls” who are looking for protection. 

An average of 63 women are killed every day, with 37 of them being mothers “who leave their families behind” in the Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said according to Hurriyet Daily.

“On International Women's Day, the women in Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war,” said a statement by the UNRWA on X.

“At least 9,000 women have been killed, many more are under the rubble. On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day- 37 are mothers who leave their families behind,” it said.

About 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza are facing malnutrition and dehydration due to Israel's war, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported one day before the International Women's Day on March 8.

Some 95 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women in north Gaza face severe food poverty, UNRWA said, adding that nearly nine in 10 women “find it harder to access food than men.”

Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back "completely traumatized" upon release and reporting abuses while in captivity, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said.

Detainees reported being subjected to a "broad range of ill treatment" including threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and having dogs used to intimidate them, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a media briefing, AFP reported.

"We have seen these people coming back from detention, some of them for a couple of weeks, some of them for a couple of months, and most of them coming back completely traumatized by the ordeal they have gone through," Lazzarini said.