Israel has urged the West to treat death figures from Hamas more cautiously, after the UN began citing dramatically lower totals for the numbers of women and children killed.
Until May 8, the UN cited data from the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office with the last death toll before then at 35,000, including 9,500 women and 14,500 children.
But on that day, the UN shifted to providing information from the Gaza Health Ministry – also run by Hamas – which has fully identified 25,000 dead, including 4,959 women and 7,797 children.
The new figure is around half of the previous total of women and children who were reported dead.
The Health Ministry said it has the corpses of a further 10,000 people, but has not been able to secure information to meet its standard for identification, which includes full names and official ID numbers.
A UN official said that the international body believes the overall number of dead still stands at roughly 35,000, but is awaiting further information on 10,000 people.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has said that 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the war since Oct 7, with 14,000 of that number terrorists and 16,000 civilians.
Tal Heinrich, the spokeswoman for the office of Mr Netanyahu, told The Telegraph: “Hamas has a clear incentive to increase casualties and inflate the numbers in an attempt to encourage international pressure on Israel.
“It is proven beyond any doubt that the data of the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza is part of the Hamas fake propaganda apparatus.
“Only recently, the UN has significantly revised the number of women and children killed in Gaza and cut them by half.
Media outlets and organisations should take any numbers provided by Hamas with a grain of salt.”
On Friday, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian aid chief, defended the organisation’s death toll figures, saying it was hard to find accurate information in a war zone.
He told the BBC: “I’d like to remind anybody listening to this that Gaza is a war zone and the collection of data and statistics, while admirable and necessary, is first of all secondary to actually delivering some aid, and secondly very difficult in cases of insecurity and violence.
“So, that’s my first point – be realistic, please, about what’s possible in the middle of what we’re seeing in Gaza.”
Mr Griffiths added that he believes the UN is “very cautious with these figures and I think it’s not right to blame the messenger who is trying to get the truth out of what is a very complicated situation”.
The reduced totals of dead women and children cited by the UN provoked a storm of criticism within Israel.
The foreign ministry said: “Interestingly, the [UN] did not release any press releases or statements, almost as if this reduction was a secret.
“They recently had trouble explaining why there was such a disparity in the numbers in the first place.”
Israel Katz, the country’s foreign minister, called on António Guterres, the UN secretary general, to step down.
On Tuesday, Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the WHO, insisted that casualty figures from Hamas could still be relied on, despite the discrepancy revealed by the UN.
He said: “Nothing wrong with the data, the overall data [more than 35,000] are still the same. The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward.”
Death toll expected to rise
The UN has said it expects the death toll of women and children to rise as more identifying information is found.
Death figures provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health have proved accurate in previous rounds of fighting. However, they do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas members.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, ambassador and permanent representative of Israel to the UN and international organisations in Geneva, said on Twitter: “Seriously WHO? There is ‘nothing wrong with the data’ provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry?
“What about the issue: Hamas does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists! Let alone relying on the figures of a terrorist organisation.
“For months, the WHO and the UN have continuously shared unverified information – one might say misinformation.”
Despite the UN changing its estimate in the latest report, the Palestinian Red Crescent issued a statement on Thursday claiming over 15,000 children had been killed in Gaza.
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