How can the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza be monitored by outside organisations? Nearly 19,000 people have been killed in 10 weeks of war, according to the Hamas-run health authorities. The credibility of those statistics has at times been undermined by sceptical world leaders, including US President Joe Biden. In Perspective, FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee spoke to Emily Tripp from UK-based transparency watchdog Airwars, which is using open-source data to try to verify the death toll in the Gaza Strip. She told us that so far, the estimates from the Hamas-run health authorities are consistent with Airwars' own findings.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
