The United Nations clarified on Monday that the overall number of fatalities in Gaza, reported by the Ministry of Health, remains at more than 35,000 since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7. This clarification follows a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on May 8, which revised the data on Palestinian casualties in the war.
The UN's report reduced the number of women and children believed to have been killed by nearly half. This adjustment was made because the UN is now relying on fully documented information, such as names and other identifying details, rather than total numbers. The Ministry of Health counts bodies that arrive at hospitals in the overall death toll.
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq explained that the health ministry in Gaza recently published two separate death tolls - an overall count and a total number of identified fatalities. The UN report only included the total number of fatalities with documented identities, leading to some confusion.
Officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that while they maintain separate counts for identified and unidentified individuals, the total number of people killed remains unchanged. They also noted that the total does not include around 10,000 individuals who are still missing and trapped under rubble.
While independent verification of the ministry's numbers is not available, a daily report from the ministry aligns with the figures published by OCHA. Both the UN and US officials have previously acknowledged the credibility of the Ministry of Health's data on casualties in Gaza.
