CNN
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The United Nations said Monday that the total number of deaths in Gaza, recorded by the Gaza Ministry of Health, remains unchanged, at more than 35,000, since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
The clarification comes after the UN humanitarian agency OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) released a report on May 8 containing revised data regarding the number of Palestinian casualties in the war. In its report, the UN agency cut by almost half the number of women and children believed to have been killed during the war.
This number has been reduced because the UN says it now relies on the number of deceased women and children whose names and other identifying details have been fully documented, rather than the total number of women and children killed. The ministry says bodies arriving at hospitals are counted in the overall death count.
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily UN press briefing that Gaza’s health ministry recently released two separate death tolls: an overall death toll and a total number of deaths identified. In the UN report, only the total number of deaths with documented identities (such as name and date of birth) was published, which is confusing.
According to Haq, the ministry released a tally of 24,686 fully identified deaths out of a total of 34,622 deaths recorded in Gaza as of April 30. The fully identified toll includes 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly people and 10,006 men, according to the UN. ” the spokesperson said, quoting the Gaza Ministry of Health.
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The Gaza health authority noted that the process of documenting the full identification details of the victims is still ongoing, Haq added.
Two Palestinian Health Ministry officials told CNN that although the ministry keeps separate death tolls for identified and unidentified individuals, the total number of people killed remains unchanged.
The total death toll also does not include the estimated 10,000 people still missing and trapped under the rubble, officials added.
Israel launched its military attack on Gaza on October 7 after the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, killed at least 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 250 others. Israel’s months-long siege of the Palestinian enclave has since pulverized large parts of Gaza and drastically reduced essential supplies, exposing the entire population of more than 2.2 million people to risk of starvation.
CNN has seen a daily report from the Palestinian Health Ministry that matches the number published by OCHA in the revised version. A total of 15,103 children and 9,961 women have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said in its latest report.
U.N. and U.S. officials have previously found Gaza’s health ministry figures credible.
CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s figures. The ministry does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties.
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News Source : amp.cnn.com
