How Many People Have Died in Gaza?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Roughly 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Is the number accurate?
Confusing Counts: A May 6 report on the death toll from a United Nations agency said roughly 9,500 women and 14,500 children had been killed since the war began on Oct. 7. Two days later, the same agency reported that 4,959 women and 7,797 children had been killed. A UN spokesperson later said the Health Ministry is recording both an overall toll and a count of identified fatalities. Only the number of fatalities whose identities had been confirmed was published in the May 8 U.N. report, fueling confusion.
Is it Accurate?: Johns Hopkins researchers found "no evidence of inflated" death counts, according to a correspondence published in December. Others highlight how the death toll is based significantly on reports other than hospital records and suggest the true toll is roughly half of what's been reported. Meanwhile, others maintain that thousands of people who remain missing or potentially buried beneath rubble aren't included in the toll.
How the Media Covered It: Fox News (Right bias) described the death toll as "unverified" and didn't mention the U.N.'s clarification. Many left- and center-rated sources report the Health Ministry death toll as fact.
Why the Difference? Some, especially on the political right, suspect that Hamas has inflated death tolls to turn the world against Israel. Updated 5/14/24 at 10:10am ET.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
UN says total number of deaths in Gaza remains unchanged after controversy over revised dataThe United Nations on Monday clarified that the overall number of fatalities in Gaza tallied by the Ministry of Health in Gaza remains unchanged, at more than 35,000, since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
The clarification comes after the UN humanitarian agency OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) published a report on May 8 with revised data regarding the number of Palestinian casualties in the war. The UN agency in its report reduced the number of women and children believed to have...
From the Center
UN says Gaza death toll still over 35,000 but not all bodies identifiedThe death toll in the Gaza Strip from the Israel-Hamas war is still more than 35,000, but the enclave's Ministry of Health has updated its breakdown of the fatalities, the United Nations said on Monday after Israel questioned a sudden change in numbers.
U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said the ministry's figures - cited regularly by the U.N. its reporting on the seven-month-long conflict - now reflected a breakdown of the 24,686 deaths of "people who have been fully identified."
From the Right
UN revises Gaza death toll, almost 50% less women and children killed than previously reportedIn a dramatic shift, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revised its data pertaining to the number of Palestinian casualties in the seven-month-old Gaza war, reducing almost by half the number of women and children it previously said were killed in the hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas.
According to an infographic published in OCHA’s daily report on May 6, the number of women killed in the fighting was said to be 9,500, while the organization, which admits to relying on figures from the...
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