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25-03-2025
CAIRO/ GAZA STRIP: More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry has announced.
That number, 50,021 equates to about 2.1% of the 2.3 million pre-war population of the territory, or around 1 in 46 people.
A total of 113,274 others had been injured in the same period, the health ministry said.
Figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) have been widely used throughout the war and are seen as reliable by the United Nations (UN) and international institutions but Israel has consistently disputed data published by Gaza’s authorities.
International journalists are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, so are unable to verify figures from either side.
The figures released by the MoH for the number of people killed do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
In November, the UN’s Human Rights Office said its analysis showed close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period were women and children.
In January, The Lancet medical journal published a study which suggested the death toll could in fact be substantially higher than official figures reported by MoH by up to 41%.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed and 251 other taken hostage.
Israel responded to the 7 October attack with a massive military offensive, which has caused vast destruction to homes and infrastructure, in addition to those killed or injured.
The MoH also reported on Sunday at least 39 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people killed to 673 since Israel resumed its military operations in the territory on Tuesday.
In any warzone, counting the dead is a challenge. Gaza is no different.
As battles there intensify, the chaotic situation with bombardment by Israeli forces, on-the-ground fighting, communications blackouts, fuel shortages and crumbling infrastructure makes getting accurate information on the numbers of people who have died extremely demanding and Palestinian officials have said there are now “significant difficulties” in obtaining updated information because of the interruption of communications in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-run health ministry is Gaza’s official source for death numbers which it updates regularly. On Monday evening, it said 11,240 people had been killed, including 4,630 children, since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October which prompted the current war.
The figures have been publicly doubted by Israel. The number of those killed in the attacks in Israel, meanwhile, was initially put at 1,400 by Israeli authorities but was later revised down to about 1,200.
US President Joe Biden has said he has “no confidence” in the Gaza statistics. But international organizations, such as the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), have said they have no reason to disbelieve them.
The media has been looking in detail at how the casualty figures for Gaza are counted.
The health ministry in Gaza reports a regular death total on social media, with an additional breakdown of the number of women, children and the elderly who have been killed. The figures do not give the cause of death, but describe the dead as victims of “Israeli aggression”. (Int’l News Desk)
