World leaders have doubted the accuracy of death toll reports from Gaza since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict. President Joe Biden stated in October that he had “no confidence” in the statistics, but he did not provide an explanation. Currently, the official death toll is estimated to be over 35,000. However, it’s unclear how many of these individuals are militants and how many are civilians. This is so because the Ministry of Health in Gaza, an organization under the control of Hamas in the region, has provided the data for the majority of the conflict.
UN revises Gaza death toll
The U.S. designated Hamas as a terrorist group in 1997, and it has dominated Gaza since winning a landslide majority in the 2006 parliamentary elections. More than 1,200 Palestinians were killed when terrorists led by Hamas assaulted Israel on October 7. In retaliation, Israel mainly barred international journalists from accessing the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian help was stopped by Israeli protests.
Furthermore, the infrastructure of Gaza was destroyed by Israeli attacks, which increased doubts about the veracity of the Ministry of Health’s death statistics. The United Nations and other leaders have no choice but to depend on Hamas government data, even though there is minimal openness regarding its sources or methodology. Pursuant to the Ministry of Health, all those who have died are the result of “Israeli aggression.” When the United Nations issued data on May 8th, showing a notable decrease in the number of women and children who had been killed in Gaza, the confusion surrounding the figures reached a boiling point.
Behind the numbers: Gaza casualties
More than 9,500 women and more than 14,500 children were confirmed killed by the United Nations on May 6. The numbers revealed 7,797 children and 4,959 women two days later. “UN halves estimates of women and children killed in Gaza,” co-host Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said in an X post on May 12. The Jerusalem Post item from May 11th was shared by Scarborough, who noted, “Apparently, the Hamas figures repeatedly cited are false.” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz stated in a May 13 X post, “The miraculous resurrection of the dead in Gaza,” indicating that Israeli officials had also taken note of the development. “The UN claims to have relied on statistics from the Hamas Ministry of Health in order to cut its estimate of women and children killed in Gaza by 50%. Blood libel against Israel is supported by terrorism and antisemitism by anyone who uses fictitious information from a terrorist group.”
Understanding the UN’s data update
A different Instagram post from May 13 stated, “The UN quietly admitted the casualty numbers in Gaza were OVER INFLATED by nearly half.” Critics of the Ministry of Health’s fatality numbers, according to some, went too far. The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ deputy executive director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, stated that the number of deaths reported from Gaza is probably an underestimate of what he called a “mass slaughter.”
Human Rights Watch’s U.N. director, Louis Charbonneau, stated that while precise figures are impossible to get, the Ministry of Health’s data is the most reliable source. According to Charbonneau, “death tolls are a messy business and extremely difficult.” Ultimately, nobody anticipates 100% accuracy as it is simply unachievable.
| Fact |
| On May 8, 2024, the UN started disseminating a demographic breakdown of all Gaza fatalities that were fully recognised and were controlled by Hamas. |
| According to UN statistics released on May 8, there were far fewer women and children reported slain than there were on May 6 from almost 9,500 and 14,500 to 4,959 and 7,797, respectively. |
| The total reported fatalities remained unchanged at over 35,000 since October 7, 2023 |
| The data of the Ministry of Health, managed by Hamas, cannot be regarded as irrefutable, and the UN lacks the capacity to independently check them. |
Gaza fatality report changed
The cumulative number of deaths reported by the U.N. and registered by Gazan authorities has “stayed unchanged at more than 35,000 people,” according to Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, since Hamas began its terrorist offensive on Israel on October 7, 2023. Nevertheless, the ministry’s updated breakdown of individuals whose identities it claimed had been thoroughly verified led to a revision in the subcategorization of deaths involving women and children. This represented a lesser portion of all the deaths.
