UN Now Reporting Half as Many Deaths of Women and Children in Gaza

UN Now Reporting Women and Children Deaths in Gaza Reduced by Half

May 13, 2024 TruthUSA

A researcher stated that the United Nations may have acknowledged the lack of evidence behind Hamas’ initial claims regarding casualty figures in Gaza.

The United Nations seems to have adjusted the estimated casualty numbers in Gaza, reducing the previous counts of Palestinian women and children killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On April 22, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the conflict had led to 34,151 deaths, including 14,500 children and 9,500 women, relying on the Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO) as the source.

No specific information was provided concerning the number of men killed in the conflict.

In a May 8 update, OCHA later revealed that 34,844 individuals had died in the war, with 24,686 identified as of April 30. Among the identified victims were 7,797 children and 4,959 women, roughly half of the previous reported deaths of women and children.

Over 10,000 people were reported missing and not included in the total death toll, according to information from GMO and the Palestinian Civil Defense.

These alterations have raised doubts about the credibility of U.N. data.

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David Adesnik, the research director at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, mentioned on the foundation’s website that the U.N. might have acknowledged the lack of supporting evidence for Hamas’ initial casualty claims in Gaza.

He emphasized, “If so, the UN should make it clear that it no longer trusts sources whose credibility it has endorsed for months.”

Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, mentioned on social media in a statement that “there is no method or standard of proof” for counting casualties in Gaza.

Mr. Neuer criticized, “The UN simply repeats Hamas’ figures, labeling the source as the ‘Gaza Ministry of Health’ or ‘Government Media Office,’ which are both controlled by Hamas terrorists.”

He added, “When it comes to Israel, the UN’s objective is not accuracy but seizing on any report, regardless of its validity, to paint Israel negatively.”

Mr. Neuer urged the U.N. to declare its Gaza casualty count as “wholly erroneous,” citing how the agency stopped updating the death toll from Syria’s civil war in 2014 due to the inability to verify information sources.

“If U.N. officials continue to endorse a system controlled by Hamas that is now proven to be entirely false, they will be supporting terrorist propaganda,” he stated.

UN’s Explanation for Revised Data

Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, informed reporters on May 10 that the agency typically adjusts figures “multiple times throughout a conflict.”

“During a conflict, it is challenging to ascertain numbers accurately,” Mr. Haq stated at a press briefing.

“We gather data from various sources on the ground, crosscheck them, and update the numbers as we verify them. We will continue to do so as the situation unfolds,” he added.

When questioned about the data’s reliability, Mr. Haq suggested that the ongoing verification process indicates that the numbers are reliable.

A January report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy pointed out that figures provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry since November 1, 2023, lack credibility as they are based on news reports rather than hospital and morgue data.

The casualty figures reported by news outlets are unconfirmed and may overlook the number of militants killed in the conflict.

“This revelation, largely ignored in OCHA publications or elsewhere, raises multiple methodological concerns,” the report stated.

“News sources are more likely to specify women and children’s deaths over men or combatants due to the dramatic impact of these deaths and local pressure to downplay Israeli strikes against combatants,” the report highlighted.

According to the report, the Gaza Health Ministry and GMO consistently downplay the number of male casualties, indicating “an improbably low proportion of male deaths” based on statistical patterns.

“Hamas’s GMO—part of the group’s propaganda apparatus—is particularly active in promoting the idea that most deaths are women and children,” the report concluded.

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