Women and newborns bearing the brunt of the conflict in Gaza, UN agencies warn
www.who.int
Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services.

As of 3 November, according to Ministry of Health data, 2326 women and 3760 children have been killed in the Gaza strip, representing 67% of all casualties, while thousands more have been injured. This means that 420 children are killed or injured every day, some of them only a few months old.

  • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
    261·
    1 year ago

    One snippet out of a lengthy article.

    Many experts consider figures provided by the ministry reliable, given its access, sources and accuracy in past statements.

    “Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time which there’s been some major discrepancy.”

    Shakir said Human Rights Watch would not use figures provided by parties with “a propensity to misrepresent information.”

    Why news outlets and the U.N. rely on Gaza’s Health Ministry for death tolls

    And another:

    Throughout four wars and numerous bloody skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, U.N. agencies have cited the 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 U.N. humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records.

    In all cases the U.N.’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza Health Ministry’s, with small discrepancies.

    — 2008 war: The ministry reported 1,440 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 1,385.

    — 2014 war: The ministry reported 2,310 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 2,251.

    — 2021 war: The ministry reported 260 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 256.

    What is Gaza’s Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war’s death toll?