World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeyer said on Tuesday that although the number of women and children killed in the conflict does not appear to be high, the U.N. health agency continues to report that the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza He said he had full confidence in the number of casualties. The latest UN report has revised it significantly downward.
“There’s nothing wrong with the data. The overall data is still the same,” Lindmeyer said. claimed that. “The fact that we now have 25,000 people identified is a step forward.”
“We’re basically talking about 35,000 dead, but the reality is that every life matters, right? And there are thousands of people missing under the rubble, many of them women and children. We know that there are unknowns,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Trossel said at the same press conference.
Lindmeyer and Throssell were referring to data released by the United Nations. published A May 8 announcement appeared to show that the number of women and children known to have died in the Gaza war has been halved.
Just a few days ago, the United Nations announced that approximately 9,500 women and 14,500 children had been murdered, but in a May 8 report, these numbers were more accurate, with much higher numbers of 4,959 and 7,797, respectively. Fixed to a lower number.
Asked by reporters about the new figures, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres blamed the “fog of war” for the inaccuracies in the initial tally and said the numbers would be revised under further “reconciliation.” He said that could change again.
The Israeli government said on Monday that it estimates that 14,000 Hamas terrorists and 16,000 civilians have been killed since Hamas began the war in Gaza on October 7. These figures are more in line with the new UN figures than with previous estimates, which doubled.
united nations changed Monday’s briefing maintained that the estimated death toll remained unchanged at around 35,000, while the lower figure released on May 8 counted only bodies that had been recovered and fully identified. It is something.
“What has changed is that the Gaza Ministry of Health has updated the breakdown of deaths and all details of the deaths have been documented,” spokesman Farhan Aziz Haq said.
“The UN team on the ground in Gaza is unable to independently verify these figures, given the prevailing situation on the ground and the huge number of deaths,” Haq said. Added.
While the United Nations, WHO and various human rights organizations reaffirmed their confidence in the accuracy of the Gaza Ministry of Health’s report, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said: ridiculed The revised report was described as a “miraculous resurrection of the dead in Gaza.”
“Those who rely on false data from terrorist organizations to promote bloody slander against Israel are anti-Semitic and support terrorism,” Katz said on Monday, repeating his call for Guterres’ resignation.
of era of israel (TOI) Monday Quote Skeptical analysts say many of the deaths claimed by the Gaza health minister are not even bodies counted by ministry officials, but rather “vague numbers reported by Hamas as coming from ‘reliable media sources.'” The United Nations is reluctant to acknowledge that this is the case. ”
said Professor Lewis Stone and Professor Gregory Rose, two of the researchers who examined the UN data. Toi The proportion of women and children in the number of “unregistered” deaths counted by Hamas from “reliable media sources” was much higher than the number of deaths registered in hospitals, so additional unregistered deaths Approximately 90% are expected to be women. And for kids to make numbers work.
Stone and Rose dismissed that scenario as “statistically absurd.” They also pointed out that information about “unregistered deaths” obtained from media reports was buried much deeper in Gaza’s Ministry of Health documents than it should have been. A new print version of this data removed references to “media reports” and claimed that unregistered deaths were people with “incomplete data”, i.e. lack of identifying information. .
Rose said:
The sudden change in the numbers published by OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) means they have admitted that previously published numbers were unreliable at best and that they were likely to have manipulated the numbers incorrectly. do. Changes in policy are only to save face.
when Toi When we brought these concerns to OCHA, the UN agency reiterated that it believed the total estimated death toll from the conflict had not changed.
“Given the situation on the ground and the huge death toll, the UN team in Gaza is unable to independently verify these figures,” OCHA said. “For this reason, all numbers used by the United Nations clearly cite the Gaza Ministry of Health as their source. The United Nations will verify these numbers to the extent possible, conditions permitting.”
