As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza passes the dark milestone of 40,000, UN rights chief Volker Türk called on Thursday for an end to the killing “once and for all”, saying most of the dead are women and children.

“Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Thursday.

“On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months,” Türk continued, citing estimates based on data from the enclave’s health authorities, before describing the “scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship [as] deeply shocking.”

He noted that his Office had documented serious violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups.