Death toll revised, says UN, 35,000 killed, 10,000 to be identified

New York: The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the war between Israel and Hamas is still more than 35,000, but the enclave's Health Ministry has revised the breakdown of fatalities, the United Nations said after Israel questioned a sudden change in the numbers.

Israel last week asked why the death toll of women and children has been halved.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the ministry's figures, regularly cited by the UN in its report on the seven-month conflict, now reflect a breakdown of the 24,686 deaths of “people who have been fully identified”.

“There are around 10,000 more bodies that have yet to be fully identified and so the details of those – which of them are children, which of them are women – that will be restored once that is complete the complete identification process”. Haq told reporters in New York.

Women activists hold a silent protest Friday with banners in Arabic, Hebrew and English calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and security, freedom and equality for Israelis and Palestinians, in front of the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.Credit: AP

Haq said these figures correspond to the identified bodies: 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly and 10,006 men, adding: “The Ministry of Health says the documentation process to fully identify the details of the victims is ongoing.” .

Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, accused the Palestinian militants of Hamas of manipulating the figures, saying: “They are not accurate and do not reflect the reality on the ground.

“Parroting Hamas propaganda messages without using any verification process has proven time and time again to be methodologically flawed and unprofessional,” he said in a social media post.