(Reuters) – Palestinian health authorities say the Israel’s air and land campaign in Gaza, resumed last week, killed more than 50,000 people, and almost a third of the dead is under 18 years old.
After a ceasefire characterized for two months of relative calm in the 18-month war, Israel resumed a total air and land campaign against Hamas last Tuesday. Palestinian health officials claim that nearly 700 people have been killed ever since.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants crossed the border and invaded Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people to the captivity in Gaza.
A new list released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which includes the names, age and gender of the dead until March 22, includes 50,021 people, from a newborn baby to a 110-year-old person. Of these, 15,613, or 31%, were under 18 years old.
The official death number of the Palestinian Ministry of Health exceeds the number of dead in previous clashes between Israeli and Palestinians in Gaza since 2005, according to data from the Israeli Human Rights Organization B’tselem.
This text examines how the number of Palestinian dead is calculated, how reliable it is, the division between civilians and dead combatants and what each side says.
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How do Gaza’s health authorities calculate the number of dead?
In the early months of the war, the number of dead was calculated entirely based on the counting of the bodies that arrived in hospitals and the data included names and identity numbers of most of the dead.
As the conflict lasted and fewer hospitals and necroteriums continued to function, the authorities also adopted other methods.
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From the beginning of May 2024, the ministry updated its division of fatalities to include unidentified bodies, which represented almost a third of the total number of dead. Since then, health authorities have been working to identify them and none of them are now listed in the number of dead.
Zaher Al-Waheidi, director of the Gaza Ministry of Health Information Unit, has attributed progress in identifying bodies to restore a central Shifa hospital database and a system that allows families to provide information about the victims, which are then verified by doctors and police.
In the two months of relative calm during the ceasefire that began in January 2025, the work accelerated, he said.
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A Reuters analysis of a previous list of the Gaza Ministry of Health with the dead showed that more than 1,200 families were completely eliminated, including an entire family of 14 people.
Is the death toll in Gaza comprehensive?
The numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims, as many are still under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Palestinian Health. He estimates that about 10,000 bodies have not been told in this way, and only a few dozen of them have been recovered since the ceasefire.
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Palestinian official counts of direct deaths in the Gaza war probably underestimated the number of victims in about 40% in the first nine months of the war as Gaza’s health infrastructure was disintegrated, according to a peer -reviewed study published in The Lancet magazine in January.
The UN Human Rights Office also states that Palestinian authorities are probably underestimated. In previous wars in Gaza, the UN count sometimes exceeded the Palestinian count.
The deaths found so far show that almost 70% were women and smaller.
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What is the credibility of the number of dead in Gaza?
Gaza before the war had robust population statistics and better health information systems than most Middle Eastern countries, Public Health experts told Reuters.
A study of open sources conducted by the United Kingdom -based non -profit organization found at least 75% between its lists and those of the Gaza authorities for thousands of dead at the beginning of the war.
The UN often cites the ministry’s death numbers and the World Health Organization expressed full confidence in them.
Does Hamas control the numbers?
Although Hamas Administe Gaza since 2007, the Ministry of Health of the Enclave also responds to the General Ministry of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, West Bank.
The Hamas Government in Gaza pays the salaries of all employees hired in public departments since 2007, including the Ministry of Health. The Palestinian Authority still pays the salaries of those who were hired before that.
What is Israel says?
Israeli authorities said the numbers are suspected due to Hamas control over the government in Gaza. Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Mamorderstein said the numbers were manipulated and “do not reflect reality on the ground.”
However, Israel’s military has also accepted in Briefings that the general numbers of victims in Gaza are reliable overall.
The Israeli military state that 407 of their soldiers have been killed in combat since the beginning of the terrestrial operation in Gaza on October 27, 2023.
The Israeli military claim that they strive to avoid civil victims. Hamas is said to use Gaza civilians as human shields, operating in densely populated areas, humanitarian zones, schools and hospitals, which Hamas denies.
How many of the dead are combatants?
The numbers of the Ministry of Palestinian health do not differentiate civilians from Hamas combatants, who do not wear formal uniforms or bearer.
Israel periodically estimates the number of dead Hamas combatants. Recent evaluations estimate by 20,000 the number of dead Palestinian militants. Israel says that about a civilian has been killed for each combatant, a proportion he assigns to Hamas for using civil facilities.
Israeli authorities say these estimates are obtained by a combination of bodies in the battlefield, interception of hamas communications, and staff intelligence evaluations at targets that were destroyed.
Hamas said the Israeli estimates of their losses are exaggerated, without saying how many of their fighters were killed.
