WHO says there is nothing wrong with data on deaths in Gaza

The World Health Organization expressed full confidence in the Gaza Health Ministry's death tolls on Tuesday, saying they were indeed close to confirming the scale of the losses after Israel questioned a change in the numbers.

Last week, Gaza's Health Ministry updated its breakdown of total deaths of around 35,000 since October 7, saying that around 25,000 of them have been fully identified to date, of which more than half were women and children.

This provoked Israeli claims of inaccuracy, as Palestinian authorities had previously estimated that more than 70% of those killed were women and children. UN agencies republished the Palestinian figures, which have since risen to more than 35,000 dead, citing the source.

“There is nothing wrong with the data, the overall data (more than 35,000) is still the same,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said at a press conference in Geneva in response to questions about the number of dead. “The fact that we now have 25,000 people identified is a step forward,” he added.

Based on his own extrapolation of the most recent Palestinian data, he said about 60% of the victims were women and children, but many bodies buried under rubble would likely fall into those categories when they were identified.

He added that it is “normal” for death tolls to change in conflicts, noting that Israel had revised down its own death toll from the Hamas attacks on October 7 to 1,200 after checks.

“We're basically talking about 35,000 people dead, and really every life matters, doesn't it?” said Liz Throssel, spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, in the same interview. “And we know that many, many of these people are women and children and there are thousands of people missing under the rubble.”