The World Health Organization expressed complete confidence in the death toll figures provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, on Tuesday. They stated that they were nearing confirmation of the scale of losses, especially after Israel raised concerns about a change in the numbers.
Last week, Gaza’s health ministry updated its breakdown of the total fatalities to around 35,000 since October 7. They reported that about 25,000 of these have been fully identified so far, with more than half being women and children.
Israel criticized the update, alleging inaccuracy, as Palestinian authorities had previously estimated that over 70% of those killed were women and children. Despite this, UN agencies have republished the Palestinian figures, which have now exceeded 35,000 dead, citing the source.
“The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a Geneva press briefing. He mentioned that around 60% of victims were likely women and children based on his extrapolation of the latest Palestinian data. Lindmeier also noted that many bodies buried beneath rubble would likely fall into these categories when identified.
Regarding the shifting death tolls in conflicts, Lindmeier recalled that Israel had revised down its own death toll from the October 7 Hamas attacks to 1,200 after checks.
“We’re basically talking about 35,000 people who are dead, and really every life matters, doesn’t it?” said Liz Throssel, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, at the same briefing. “And we know that many and many of those are women and children and there are 1,000s missing under the rubble.”
{Matzav.com}