Gaza Health Ministry revises war death toll, removes nearly 2,000 names

The Gaza Health Ministry has revised its official war casualty count, removing 1,852 names from the death toll since October. 

This adjustment brings the current death toll to 50,609, as reported by a Sky News investigation. The revision follows the discovery of errors, including the inclusion of individuals who died of natural causes or were still alive but imprisoned.

The majority of the corrections—nearly 97%—came from an online form that allowed families to report deaths when bodies were not found. Zaher Al Wahidi, head of statistics at the Gaza Health Ministry, explained that many of the reported deaths were related to natural causes, such as heart attacks or pneumonia, often triggered by the surrounding destruction. "Perhaps they were near an explosion and had a heart attack, or living in [destroyed] houses caused them to get pneumonia or hypothermia," Al Wahidi said.

This marks the largest revision of the death toll since the start of the conflict. Previously, names submitted through the online form were added to the official list before undergoing judicial review.

Gabriel Epstein, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, emphasized that there is "no reason to believe that the errors are the result of deliberate manipulation." Of the 1,852 names removed, 41% were men aged 18 to 60, while 59% were women, children, and the elderly.

Professor Michael Spagat, chairman of Every Casualty Counts, a civilian casualty monitoring organization, noted that the revision impacts the accuracy of earlier death toll reports, acknowledging that the quality of previous lists must be downgraded.

Additionally, between August and October, the ministry removed 1,441 names, 54% of which were from hospital records. This error was attributed to staff members mistakenly listing the wrong people as deceased due to a lack of access to the central population register.