The BBC has been looking in detail at how the casualty figures are totalled.

By BBC Verify team

BBC News

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 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.

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  • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
    12·
    1 year ago

    May as well post this for you to read also. (Though it would seem you didn’t read the article you are replying to, so my hopes aren’t high.)

    One snippet out of a lengthy article.

    Many experts consider figures provided by the ministry reliable, given its access, sources and accuracy in past statements.

    “Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time which there’s been some major discrepancy.”

    Shakir said Human Rights Watch would not use figures provided by parties with “a propensity to misrepresent information.”

    Why news outlets and the U.N. rely on Gaza’s Health Ministry for death tolls

    And another:

    Throughout four wars and numerous bloody skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, U.N. agencies have cited the Health Ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

    In the aftermath of war, the U.N. humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records.

    In all cases the U.N.’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza Health Ministry’s, with small discrepancies.

    — 2008 war: The ministry reported 1,440 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 1,385.

    — 2014 war: The ministry reported 2,310 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 2,251.

    — 2021 war: The ministry reported 260 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 256.

    What is Gaza’s Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war’s death toll?