Since October 7, more than 10,500 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas government. Where does this figure come from and how is it received by the international community? Explanatory elements.
More than 10,800 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, said the local Ministry of Health on Wednesday November 8. These figures, however, are used with caution by international media, as they are impossible to confirm independently. Above all, they come from an administration controlled by Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Palestinian enclave and whose armed wing took 239 hostages and at least 1,400 dead during attacks in Israel on October 7. If the influence of the Islamist movement raises legitimate doubts about them, the main UN organizations nevertheless judge this data to be consistent.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is the main emergency medical service in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where it supports 35% of interventions. It provides data on the number of deaths and injuries, alongside other health actors. “The dispatch center, that is to say the central line for ambulances and emergency services, opens a file during each intervention”, explains the organization’s spokesperson, Nebal Farsakh. The ambulance sends a notification when picking up the patient, then another after transfer to the hospital. Names, age and destination are notably recorded.
The victims of the conflict are listed in a computer database set up by the Gaza Ministry of Health. This “central register of martyrs” – that’s its name – is fed directly by the various public health stakeholders. As of midday on November 5, PRCS teams had reported 2,861 deaths and 8,877 injuries in the Gaza Strip, according to its data posted online. (PDF document). These figures include the death tolls at al-Quds and al-Hamal hospitals – located in Gaza City and Khan Yunis – as both structures are managed by the organization. Private establishments must send a form to the ministry within 24 hours, according to a methodology put online at the end of October.
“A situation without possible comparison”
Like his colleagues, Youssef Al-Aqqad, director of the European Hospital of Khan Younès, has been recording the names and identity numbers of the dead since October 7. “When we don’t know them, we write ‘anonymous no. 1’, ‘no. 2’, etc.” It evokes bodies that are sometimes dismembered or blackened, to the point that the relatives themselves are unable to identify them. This question is nevertheless important, because it raises “legal issues [comme les successions]and religious”. The victims, in the Muslim rite, must in fact be buried within 24 hours.
Youssef Al-Aqqad, in any case, evokes a situation “without comparison possible” with previous episodes of bombing, affirming that the reception capacities of most health establishments are now largely exceeded. The European Hospital, he said, received 78 injured people on Monday, November 6, a relatively mild day.
“During the previous conflict, we used to receive around ten patients at a time. But now, around a hundred wounded people can arrive at the same time.”
Youssef Al-Aqqad, director of the European Hospital of Khan Younèsat franceinfo
“We no longer have any places available”Medhat Abbas, head of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza and director general of the Ministry of Health, told franceinfo. “Dead people are lying on the ground, alongside seriously injured patients. Some had to be amputated without anesthesia.” The influx of victims is significant, but it ensures that “emergency department staff are trained to count cases reported by hospitals.”
Reliability of ministry figures called into question
Since October 7, in fact, the reports from the Ministry of Health have been the only source available across the Gaza Strip. These figures have already been used for years by various international organizations and the media, including Israeli ones. But the explosion at al-Ahli hospital on October 17 rekindled questions about the figures communicated by Hamas. The movement quickly mentioned an Israeli strike resulting in the death of 500 people, revising the toll to 471 victims the next day. Several Western sources then favored the hypothesis of a Palestinian rocket, and American intelligence had mentioned between 100 and 300 deaths.
“I do not deny that civilians are killed, including many children. All this is verifiable. (…) But health officials who would step out of line by giving journalists something other than the toll on which Hamas wishes to communicate s ‘would expose you to serious consequences’, wrote on (ex-Twitter) Luke Baker, former Reuters bureau chief in Jerusalem between 2014 and 2017. Remarks that make Medhat Abbas jump.
“We have nothing to do with Hamas, we are health professionals. I speak on behalf of hospitals, colleagues, patients and the injured.”
Medhat Abbas, head of al-Shifa Hospital and director general of the Ministry of Healthat franceinfo
The Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, “still maintains close links with the health services (…) in Gaza”despite Hamas coming to power in the enclave in 2007, underlines the AP agency.
The al-Ahli hospital affair subsequently took a more political turn. At a press conference on October 25, American President Joe Biden affirmed that he had not “no confidence in the figure used by the Palestinians”. “After this declaration, we published the list of all those killed, with their name and identity number, taken from their identity card or birth certificate”, explains Medhat Abbas, confirming the link between the president’s remarks and this publication. The list published at the end of October included the names of 6,747 people and 281 anonymous lines. It did not specify whether fighters or hostages held by Hamas were among the victims.
The Palestinian death toll has risen further since then. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, has already announced the death of 92 of its 13,000 employees in the Gaza Strip. “We have never had so many colleagues killed”underlines the spokesperson for the organization, Juliette Touma. “This is an unprecedented achievement in the world for our agency, but also for the entire United Nations.” The ratio of deaths among agents, she continues, is consistent with the ministry’s figures for the entire population, estimated at around 2.2 million inhabitants in the territory. “This suggests that the figures reported by the Ministry of Health are relatively accurateshe declares. This is not a confirmation, but an indication.”
“A reasonably accurate reflection of the situation”
When the time comes, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) could set up a UN commission of inquiry to obtain an independent assessment. “We have not yet verified all the information published by the ministry during this escalation of hostilities”, the organization’s spokesperson, Liz Throssell, told franceinfo. In its methodological note, the OHCHR explains that its agents, as far as possible, must confirm their information with “two independent and reliable sources”. But communications and power outages represent “logistical challenges”while the bombings continue.
Liz Throssell adds, however, that the first “Information we are currently collecting confirms the number of victims currently provided by the ministry.” The Gaza authorities’ toll could even be underestimated, she adds, because it does not include the dead who were not taken to hospital, and those who are still under the rubble. The OHCHR, in fact, considers this data “as a reasonably accurate reflection of the situation on the ground”. He justifies his position by his experience of previous conflicts, recalling that his assessments have always been similar to the results communicated by the ministry.
During the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave in 2021, the ministry announced 260 deaths, compared to 256 for the UN. Seven years earlier, in 2014, Gaza had recorded 2,310, compared to 2,251 according to UNRWA. An international official, on condition of anonymity, explains to franceinfo that certain discrepancies may be linked to deaths ultimately caused by Palestinian rockets, or to the impossibility of formally verifying an occurrence. It remains to be seen whether these ministerial assessments are still as reliable as in the past, given the unprecedented war launched more than a month ago.
A spokesperson for the American Pentagon acknowledged, Monday, November 6, that the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip “se [comptait] by thousands”. But while waiting for the publication of international reports, franceinfo will continue to cite the ministry’s figures, while specifying that they cannot be confirmed independently immediately. The debates on this macabre count should, in any case, not make us forget the scale of the bombings, which has been widely documented. “In this flow of information we become mere numbers”, summarizes Palestinian journalist Rami Abujamus to franceinfo. “But behind these thousands of deaths, there are so many stories.”