UN: Gaza Health Ministry Death Tolls in Earlier Conflicts Credible

Gaza, MINA – The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the death toll given by the health ministry in Gaza had proved to be “credible” in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current war, Al Jazeera reported on Friday.

“In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters.

Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed since the conflict began, explaining how the agency’s death toll was in line with the ratio of Palestinians killed to the territory’s overall population, as provided by the health ministry.

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“We have more or less the same percentage,” he said.

Lazzarini’s comments came just days after US President Joe Biden said he had “no confidence” in the figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry, drawing criticism from Palestinian rights advocates. On Thursday, meanwhile, the health ministry released a list with the names of the more than 7,000 Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 children, killed since the war began on October 7. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)