Gaza Genocideupdated 44m ago3 min read
MapUN Revises Gaza Women And Children Death Share After Israel Offensive Following Hamas Attack
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UN says Gaza death toll remains over 35,000 per Gaza Health Ministry. UN revised down the share of women and children among Gaza fatalities.
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UN revises women and children
The United Nations revised down the proportion of women and children killed in Gaza after Israel launched its offensive following the Hamas attack of 7 October, with the UN saying on 6 May that 69% of reported fatalities were women and children and then saying two days later that the figure was 52%. The UN said the overall number of reported deaths in Gaza, which it put at more than 35,000, had not changed, but it said incomplete information led to the revision. The UN said it was now relying on figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza rather than from the Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO), and it said the GMO had included an additional category of deaths recorded in "reliable media reports".
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz highlighted the UN change, calling the lower reported death tolls for women and children "the miraculous resurrection of the dead in Gaza" and accusing the UN of relying on "fake data from a terrorist organisation". Prof Erica Charters said keeping precise records of casualties during wartime is challenging, and she pointed to how the initial figure for how many people were killed in Hamas's 7 October attacks was originally put at 1,400 by Israeli authorities and later revised down to about 1,200.
Identified records drive change
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters that the UN was now relying on the number of deceased women and children whose names and other identifying details had been fully documented, rather than the total number of women and children killed. The UN said it was now only quoting figures for the number of women and children killed based on those who have been fully identified by the Health Ministry, and it said the Health Ministry had been able to fully identify 24,686 deaths out of more than 35,000 people. The UN said those fully identified figures included 7,797 children and 4,959 women, and it said the breakdown also listed 1,924 elderly people and 10,006 men.
OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said the new breakdown did not contradict previous estimates that women and children made up more than two thirds of those killed, and he said it was "more detail about a sub-section of the overall tally of 35,000 deaths". WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the new breakdown was "the most comprehensive" provided to date and he told reporters in Geneva that from a "minimum statistical calculation" it could be expected that at least "56 percent women and children" were among the more than 35,000 dead.
Israel disputes, UN says unchanged
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein accused Palestinian militants Hamas of manipulating the numbers, saying "They are not accurate and they do not reflect the reality on the ground." UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said the overall death toll remained unchanged at more than 35,000, and he told reporters in New York that "There’s about another 10,000 plus bodies who still have to be fully identified." The UN said its teams in Gaza were not able to independently verify the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) figures given the ongoing war and sheer number of fatalities.
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said the WHO "has a long-standing co-operation with the MoH in Gaza" and she said the MoH has "good capacity in data collection/analysis" and its previous reporting has been considered credible. The BBC reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said about 30,000 people had been killed in Gaza, with 14,000 of them being "terrorists" and 16,000 civilians, and the BBC said he did not provide any evidence for those figures.