UN Halves ‘Identified’ Gaza Civilian Deaths

May 12, 2024 8:55 am | News, Ticker, Virtual Jerusalem

The United Nations has dramatically reduced the number of confirmed fatalities in Gaza from 34,844 to 24,686 identified, of which an estimated 14,000 according to the IDF, were combat fighters from Hamas and other terrorist organizations.  The adjustments strongly suggests that total deaths are less than 10,000, far from the 35,000 figure previously bandied about.

The adjustment on May 8 indicates that most of the fatalities in Gaza have been combatants (terrorists).  After more than seven months of fight, this adjustment strongly validates the claim by Israel and military experts that the IDF campaign has been one of the most “surgical” in military history. Most of the undocumented casualties are women and children.

It appears that the UN may have since removed the controversial adjustments, as only a previous report appears on its site now.

Even the claim of 10,686 non-combatant casualties appears highly suspect. It does not include those killed in frequent shootings of civilians by terror groups and deaths caused by frequent rocket misfires. It also does not distinguish deaths from accidents unrelated to Israeli military or natural causes.

The United Nations in the last week has updated its approach to reporting casualty figures from Gaza. The new report differentiates between confirmed identifications and prior estimations. This has led to a revised count with far fewer, more than 10,000, confirmed women and children deaths than previously reported.

This adjustment follows scrutiny and discussions about the accuracy of the figures provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is the sole official source of casualty data in the territory due to restrictions on foreign reporters and independent organizations.

Historically, the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures have been accepted by international bodies including the UN and the US State Department. However, discrepancies have arisen, such as recent incidents reported by the ministry, where initial figures for a specific attack were later revised down tenfold from initial estimates. Statistical analysis also indicated that the proportion of women and children, and changes of the numbers over time, were simply not credible.

The reliability of these numbers has been a contentious issue, particularly with contrasting statements from different governments and officials. For instance, while some international health officials and human rights groups have endorsed the ministry’s numbers as a fair reflection of the actual situation, others, including Israeli and American officials, have advised taking these numbers with caution, suggesting they may not always be accurate. Foreign media has largely accepted the data of the Hamas-backed ministry.


The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) released a report in January showing major discrepancies in the fatality reports, concluding the discrepancies were likely caused by manipulation. Professor Abraham Wyner, cited in a major story in Tablet Magazine, presented an analysis showing hat the reported death rate was unnatural and climbed at an abnormal rate.

4 Comments

  1. Dr. Stephen Steinlight

    This is a long overdue correction of the shameless exaggeration of casualties in Gaza, the product of taking the self-serving figures provided by the Hamas terrorist “Health Authority” at face value. The figure of 35,000 has been repeated on multiple occasions day after day in articles on the war in Gaza by such newspapers of record as the “Washington Post” and the “New York Times,” providing additional evidence of their strong anti-Israel bias and giving this ludicrous figure the air of authority. This exaggeration of civilian dead has been a cornerstone of the Palestinian/Arab propaganda machine, the UN’s campaign to vilify Israel, and is cited as Gospel truth by the hopelessly ignorant students involved in the widespread campus protests as well as by their mendacious mentors among the large number of faculty supporting them. The figure means that the radio of Gazan civilian dead to Hamas terrorist dead is indeed roughly 1:1. According to Col. Spencer, West Point’s expert on urban warfare, that ratio would represent the most humane urban military campaign ever conducted. In Iraq and Afghanistan where Col. Spencer served, the ratio during the US campaigns was 5:1. The UN estimates for most militaries engaged in urban warfare the ratio is 10:1. That makes the Israeli campaign the cleanest most careful on record. It has been a miracle in terms of civilian losses, Will the “NYT” and “Washington Post” apologize for their outrageous repetition of lies and for creating a false impression of Israel? Will President Biden stop referring to Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing? ” The ball is now in court of the those who have repeated lies about Israel to tarnish its reputation. Now we must wait to see whether the false accusers are capable of truth.

  2. Bill E

    No surprise; Question when will CNN, NBC, NPR, Reuters MSNBC, BBC, Guardian put this on page 1 as they claimed civilian counts in the past?

  3. Pauline

    Since they voted in HAMAS and have been radicalized by HAMAS for 2 decades and children taught how to kill Jews in school at age 5, I hardly think many are innocent in this bloodshed.

    • Sandra Lee Smith

      Right after the Zamboni races on the lake of fire, since clearly the Muslim bloc demanded its retraction, and got it! Truth is NOT a virtue in Islam!
      Children are taught those skills as soon as they are toddling, by their MOTHERS, before they start school.

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