UN struggles to explain revision in number of women and children killed in Gaza
A United Nations spokesperson sought Monday to justify the revision of the number of children and women killed in the Gaza Strip, which the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has almost halved between the May 6 and 8.
In his May 6 infographicOCHA reported 14,500 children and 9,500 women killed since October 7 in the enclave. The 8ththese tolls had respectively increased to 7,797 and 4,959. The total number of deaths, on the other hand, varied very little, but in the infographic of May 8 the organization specifies that 24,686 bodies could be identified .
Asked about this revision, Farhan Aziz Haq, spokesperson for the UN, declared that the reports were established on the basis of data from the Ministry of Health of the enclave administered by Hamas and that they could vary “depending on the verification process it undertakes”.
“UN teams on the ground are unable to independently verify these figures given the situation on the ground and the high number of deaths. This is why all figures used by the UN clearly cite the Gaza Ministry of Health as the source.he added.
In a footnote, OCHA explains that the figures it mentions were provided by the Ministry of Health or the press service of the enclave administration and have not been verified.
Reacting on Upon review of the results, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the resignation of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “ Anyone who relies on false data from a terrorist organization to promote smears against Israel is anti-Semitic and supports terrorism.”he writes.