Did the UN really say Israel has killed fewer people in Gaza? (2024)

Has the UN really said fewer people were killed by Israel in Gaza?

No, is the short answer.

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Under the rubble: The missing in Gaza

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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published on May 8 an infographic that referred to a figure of 34,844 total Palestinian deaths.

Below that, it said of the deaths: “24,686 identified as of 30 April as: 10,006 men, 4,959 women, 7,797 children, 1,924 elderly”.

The graphic used the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) figures and included a note that figures were “Not including more than 10,000 reported missing or under the rubble”.

The figures for bodies that had been identified were seized on by many media outlets as the UN “revising down” its estimates of the number of women and children Israel had killed in its assault on Gaza.

Rather, the UN was publishing the latest information from Gaza’s MoH about its progress in a massive effort to identify the dead.

The UN confirmed this on Monday, when spokesperson Farhan Haq, responding to a question from Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, said that the updated breakdown was only in reference to the smaller 24,686 death toll.

“There’s about another 10,000 plus bodies who still have to be fully identified, and so then the details of those – which of those are children, which of those are women – that will be reestablished once the full identification process is complete,” Haq said at the UN in New York.

What was the ‘initial’ estimate?

The estimated number for the total number of people killed by Israel in Gaza and those missing under the rubble or elsewhere has never changed.

As of Tuesday, the total number stands at 35,173 people killed by Israel in Gaza since the war erupted more than seven months ago.

Eighty-two of those people were killed in the last 24 hours.

Where do the casualty numbers come from?

All casualty numbers – identified and unidentified deaths – as well as missing people are generated by the Gaza MoH.

Critics often criticise the MoH for being administered by Hamas, implying that its figures are not to be trusted.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Tuesday that it has full confidence in the MoH’s numbers.

MoH statistics have also been verified by Human Rights Watch and used by the United States Department of State in past conflicts and as recently as March 2023, despite US President Joe Biden questioning those numbers without evidence.

What is this ‘new number’?

The so-called “new number” of 24,686 refers only to bodies that have been identified – of those, 7,797 were children, 4,959 women and 1,924 were elderly people.

This means that more than 10,000 recovered bodies are still unidentified.

Moreover, an estimated 10,000 people remain missing, most likely buried under the rubble across Gaza.

Is that number going to change?

“The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told the press in Geneva on Tuesday.

“There’s about another 10,000 plus bodies who still have to be fully identified, and so then the details of those – which of those are children, which of those are women – that will be re-established once the full identification process is complete,” UN spokesperson Haq said.

Israel has come under consistent international pressure over the death toll in Gaza.

Some media outlets seized on the number breakdown as the UN having revised its numbers to a “more realistic figure” – without clarifying – as evidence of anti-Israeli bias within the UN.

In recent days, Egypt – with whom Israel has had a truce since 1979 – has joined South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide.

During an appearance on the Call Me Back podcast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to reference the change, saying the Israeli army had “been able to keep the ratio of civilians to combatants killed … [to] a ratio of about one to one”.

“Fourteen thousand have been killed, combatants,” he continued, “and probably around 16,000 civilians have been killed.”

Did the UN really say Israel has killed fewer people in Gaza? (2024)

FAQs

Did the UN really say Israel has killed fewer people in Gaza? ›

Changes in how the UN calculates Gaza's casualties have been cited as evidence of bias. They aren't. Has the UN really said fewer people were killed by Israel in Gaza? No, is the short answer.

Is Gaza's death toll accurate? ›

The figures don't distinguish between civilians and fighters killed. The U.N. agencies have provided several reasons for crediting the figures coming out of Gaza. The agencies cite more than a decade of “generally accurate” numbers from the Gaza Ministry of Health through multiple mass-casualty conflicts there.

How many Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza? ›

At least 307 Israeli troops have been killed and thousands wounded since October 27 when the ground invasion of Gaza was launched. At least 37,296 Palestinians – mostly women, children, and elderly – have died since the war began on October 7, Gaza's health ministry says.

What is the UN resolution on Israel and Palestine? ›

United Nations Resolution 181, resolution passed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1947 that called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with the city of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (Latin: “separate entity”) to be governed by a special international regime.

How many people were killed in Gaza al-Jazeera? ›

At least 37,658 people killed and 86,237 wounded in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7.

Who killed the most deaths in the world? ›

But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million people – easily making it the biggest episode of mass murder ever recorded.

What is the number one actual cause of death? ›

The top three leading causes of death in the United States are now: Heart disease. Cancer. Preventable Injury.

Was Palestine a country before Israel? ›

While the State of Israel was established on 15 May 1948 and admitted to the United Nations, a Palestinian State was not established. The remaining territories of pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank - including East Jerusalem- and Gaza Strip, were administered from 1948 till 1967 by Jordan and Egypt, respectively.

Does the UN think Palestine is a country? ›

As of June 2024, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012.

Who voted against Palestine at the UN? ›

UN assembly approves resolution granting Palestine new rights and reviving its UN membership bid. The United States voted against the resolution, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.

Why is Israel bombing Gaza? ›

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian militants attacked Israel, killing 1,143 people (mostly civilians) and beginning the Israel–Hamas war. Israel responded by bombing the Gaza Strip and launching an invasion that has killed more than 34,000 Gazans as of April 2024.

How many Palestinians are left in Gaza? ›

Religious Demography. The U.S. government estimates the total Palestinian population at 3 million in the West Bank and 2 million in the Gaza Strip (midyear 2022).

What percentage of Muslims live in Gaza? ›

Today, Islam is a prominent religion in both Gaza and the West Bank. Most of the population in the State of Palestine are Muslims (85% in the West Bank and 99% in the Gaza Strip).

Is the Gaza health Ministry reliable? ›

Its numbers have historically been considered reliable by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and Human Rights Watch. In relation to the Israel-Hamas war, two scientific studies published in The Lancet journal did not find evidence of inflation or fabrication.

What is the most accurate time of death? ›

As a general rule, the sooner after death the body is examined, the more accurate this estimate will be. Unfortunately, the changes that a body undergoes after death occur in widely variable ways and with unpredictable time frames. There is no single factor that will accurately indicate the time of physiological death.

How accurate is time of death estimation? ›

The determination of the time of death may be necessary for the heirs to carry out some legal actions and also, from a forensic point of view, to enlighten the case. Although its determination is very important, there is no known scientific method by which the exact time of death can be determined.

How accurate is coroners time of death? ›

Once livor mortis, rigor mortis and ambient temperature are all in place, determining a precise window of death becomes trickier. “From 10 to 50 hours [after death], it's basically a wild guess,” says Lents. That's why forensic entomologists—who study the insects that accompany decomposition—are so important.

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