Israel's battle against Hamas - Number of children killed in Gaza reduced by UN
Every other day, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provides an update on the deaths related to Israel's defense campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza. The organization sources its information from the "Ministry of Health in Gaza," which is controlled by Hamas, along with the "State Media Office" under Hamas' control.
By May 6th, the UN had reported over 9,500 women killed and more than 10,500 children killed. But on May 8th, the figures changed drastically. Instead, the UN reported only 4,959 women and 7,797 children killed. Furthermore, men and the elderly were also included in the reported casualties, with 10,006 men and 1,924 elderly people being mentioned. The agency did not specify how many of the deceased were Hamas militants or other terrorists. According to Israel's claims, more than 13,000 terrorists were killed in the war.
Interestingly, OCHA has now started differentiating between "reported" and "identified" casualties. By May 8th, 10,158 individuals had been reported killed but not yet identified. This accounts for nearly a third of the victims.
David Adesnik, the Research Director at the US-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), finds this sudden change in figures "confusing."
One potential explanation for the drop in figures, suggests Adesnik, is that the UN may have recognized the lack of evidence behind Hamas' initial claims that more than 14,000 children and 9,000 women were killed in Gaza. Adesnik argues that the UN needs to clarify it no longer trusts these sources.
In early April, the Hamas-led Ministry of Health in Gaza acknowledged they had insufficient data to provide details about over 10,000 of the previously reported deaths. And since April 1st, they discontinued claiming that two-thirds of the deceased were women and children, as they had at the start of the conflict.
Furthermore, OCHA says it is unable to independently verify the reported figures in the current situation. Therefore, all statistics cited by the United Nations attribute the source as the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The UN plans to verify the figures once the circumstances allow.
Criticizing the United Nations, Hillel Neuer, the Executive Director of the non-governmental organization UN-Watch (focused on misconduct within the UN), firmly believes it's time for the UN to admit that their reporting on Gaza's casualties has failed.
Neuer told the Jewish-American news site "JNS": "By continuing to legitimize a Hamas-led system that has now been proven to be false, the United Nations representatives are condoning the spread of terrorist propaganda."
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Source: symclub.org
