How Many People Have Died in Gaza?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Roughly 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Can we trust that number?
The Details: The Health Ministry's death toll is the only consistent count, and as of April 22, says over 34,100 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7. The toll doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed roughly 13,000 Hamas members in Gaza.
Is it Accurate?: Researchers from Johns Hopkins compared the Gaza mortality reports with "reported staff member deaths from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)" and found "no evidence of inflated rates," according to a correspondence published in The Lancet in December.
An Overcount?: A writer for The Telegraph (Lean Right bias) highlighted on March 28 how, unlike in other conflicts, the Gaza death toll is based significantly on reports other than official hospital records. The writer highlighted "discrepancies between the two datasets" used in the Lancet correspondence, and suggested it's more likely that "around 18,000" people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, rather than over 32,000.
An Undercount?: "Thousands missing beneath rubble are not included in the official count," said a writer for NPR (Lean Left) in February. The article also highlighted doctors in Gaza who said the official count "largely excludes people who have died from a lack of adequate treatment, disease and other impacts from the war, like hunger."
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Gaza's death toll now exceeds 30,000. Here's why it's an incomplete countEman Abusaeid struggled to keep her children safe in Gaza, as Israeli bombs targeted her neighborhood in the days after Oct. 7, when Hamas militants stormed into Israel.
The Palestinian architect and mother of two could hear Israeli fighter jets rumbling overhead as air strikes took out the building next to hers. Bodies were being pulled from the rubble. She was trying to shield her children from scenes of death all around.
"We woke up with the dust bombing on our faces and bodies, and smelling of gunpowder and dirt....
From the Center
Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says death toll passed 32,900At least 32,916 Palestinians have been killed and 75,494 have been wounded in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
The terror group’s figures are unverified, don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, and list all the fatalities as caused by Israel — even those believed to have been caused by hundreds of misfired rockets or otherwise by Palestinian fire.
Israel has said it killed some 13,000 Hamas members in Gaza fighting, in addition to some 1,000 killed in Israel in the aftermath of the terror group’s October 7...
From the Right
The numbers of dead in Gaza don’t add up – and there is no easy explanationSince the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war that started on October 7, the number of casualties in Gaza has been a subject of heated debate.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, the number now stands at more than 30,000 dead, with no distinction made between civilian and combatant casualties.
In previous rounds of fighting in the Strip, the total number of deaths reported by the Gazan authorities have been found to be broadly accurate, not differing significantly from estimates produced by the UN or IDF. There have, however, always been...
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