(NewsWorthy.news) – The U.N. has revised its estimate of the current data relating to Palestinian casualties in Gaza since October 2023.
The updated figures appear to have reduced the amount of women and children the U.N. previously said had been killed in the conflict between the Israeli regime and Hamas. The report published by the organization’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on May 6 stated that 9,500 women and 14,500 children had been killed since October. The U.N. has reportedly admitted that it depends on the Hamas-run Ministry of Health’s figures. The OCHA’s May 8 report, however, said that 4,959 women and 7,797 children had died so far in the war. The lower estimate is still considerably higher than the 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, killed by Hamas in the October 7 attacks.
The U.N. denied that the death toll estimate had been reduced, however; spokesman Farhan Haq explained that the lower figures only reflected bodies that had been properly identified. He added that the larger numbers included the unidentified victims of the conflict. Haq predicted that the official death tolls of women and children will increase after more bodies are identified.
Israel’s media soon took the opportunity to suggest that the U.N. had been exaggerating the figures. Israeli media acknowledged that the U.N. was distinguishing between identified and “unregistered” deaths, but still suggested that the organization was relying too much on figures provided by Hamas, which is recognized internationally as a terror organization. Qatari media denied that the distinction between identified and unidentified victims was evidence of bias, noting that the figures did not include the 10,000 reported as missing or buried beneath rubble according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The revised figures for identified bodies also included 10,006 men and 1,924 elderly people killed in the conflict.
Hamas’ MoH places the total death toll in Gaza at 35,000 in addition to those missing and buried under demolished buildings. Humanitarian organizations, international media and heads of state including President Biden have not questioned the figures ultimately tallied by Hamas. Israel has disputed the figures and argued that over a third of the casualties are enemy combatants rather than civilians. In November 2023, Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said there should be no maximum acceptable civilian death toll in the Gaza conflict.
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