A/HRC/28/78 related ailments, including dermatological conditions. Beyond the school shelters, host families were also reportedly rapidly overwhelmed by the burden of having to host as many as 30 extended family members and relatives, putting considerable financial and psychological strain on all family members. The desperation was summed up by a woman who, exasperated, told a United Nations staff member distributing food items that, “I don’t want food; I want a future for my children”. 16. A Palestinian human rights defender originally from Shuja’iya explained that “those people’s minds were as hard as a rock and so attached to their land that they would never leave so easily”. Nonetheless, within minutes of the Israeli assault on that particular neighbourhood on 20 July, he recalled how the bombs, tank shells and naval artillery “shook the ground like an earthquake and opened the gates of hell”. By 6 p.m., 150,000 people were reportedly trying to flee the area. A Palestinian staff member of a nongovernmental organization, speaking also as a mother and former resident from Beit Hanoun, described how the Israelis had called and ordered them to evacuate their home. “We only had a few moments to gather important documents and to take the children out”, she said. “When you look at the framed photos of family and friends on the wall and feel the warmth of your own home, it’s not easy to just leave not knowing if you will ever come back again.” 17. Israel reportedly gave warnings prior to some airstrikes by telephone, text messaging and leaflet drops across the Gaza Strip. Palestinian human rights defenders, however, explained that, in such a confined and densely populated area, for many people there was simply nowhere to run, no safe passage or safe haven, not even in the United Nations shelters. This was particularly the case for the most vulnerable residents: young children, the elderly, pregnant women and the physically disabled. Some witnesses pointed out that young Palestinians in Gaza would choose to go from one potential death in Gaza to another by crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats in an attempt to reach Europe, which showed and how desperate people were to leave Gaza. D. Civilian casualties: families and children 18. According to OHCHR, some 69 per cent of the Palestinians killed during the hostilities in Gaza were civilians. An Israeli organization compiling its own statistics on Palestinian fatalities has so far found the Palestinian civilian to combatant casualty ratio to be somewhat lower, at 48 per cent. 13 On both counts, serious questions arise with regard to Israel’s adherence to the principles of international humanitarian law. 19. The most striking aspect of the most recent conflict was the way in which most civilian victims were not simply bystanders on the street in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the Special Rapporteur heard time and again, most victims were families killed in missile strikes on their own homes, usually at night. Palestinian human rights defenders noted that some entire families, including the Najar and Abu Kaware families, were “simply wiped off the registries”. 20. In the non-exhaustive list of cases brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur, almost all of the families listed lost one or more infants or children, killed in attacks on their homes. In some cases, pregnant women and elderly persons were also killed. This non-exhaustive list includes the following names: Al-Haj, Al-Batsh, Al-Awdat, Shuheebar, 13 This ratio is based on 54 per cent of verified fatalities. See Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, “Examination of the names of the Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge”, 1 December 2014. 7