17 September 2024 , 21:09
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Document runs to 649 pages and includes 169 babies born after the Hamas attacks of 7 October
Gaza’s health ministry has identified 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in the territory, publishing a list of names, ages, gender and ID numbers that cover more than 80% of Palestinians killed in the war so far.
The remaining 7,613 people included in its death toll, which is now above 41,000, are Palestinians whose bodies have been received by hospitals and morgues, but whose identities have not yet been confirmed.
The identified people include 169 babies born after the Hamas attacks of 7 October that began the war, and a man born in 1922 who had survived more than a century of war and upheaval.
The document runs to 649 pages, with the dead listed largely by age. Gaza’s population is youthful, and the register underlines the high toll of Israeli attacks on Palestinian children.
More than 100 pages are filled with the names of victims under 10 years old, and the first adult names do not appear until page 215.
Israeli officials question the death toll given by the authorities in Gaza, arguing that because Hamas controls the government there, Gaza’s health officials cannot provide reliable figures.
However, doctors and civil servants in the territory have a credible record from past wars. After several conflicts between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators drew up their own lists of the dead and found they closely matched ones from Gaza.
“Unfortunately, we have the sad experience of coordinating with the ministry of health on casualty figures every few years,” Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, has said. “Their figures have proven to be generally accurate.”
Palestinian authorities have been regularly updating the lists of those confirmed dead. This latest release adds more than 2,000 names.
It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but a majority of the 34,344 dead can be identified as civilians based on age and gender alone. It includes 11,355 children, 2,955 people aged 60 or older, and 6,297 women. There are also many civilian men of fighting age who have been killed.
Israel claims it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It does not provide an estimate of civilians killed in Gaza.
The official death toll provided by health authorities does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses, because it excludes people buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings, and those not directly killed by bombs or bullets.
About 10,000 people killed by airstrikes are thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, because there has been little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins to look for them, according to health officials.
Hunger, lack of shelter and medication, the rapid spread of infectious diseases and the collapse of the healthcare system has claimed many other lives. Palestinian authorities plan to count those dead when the fighting stops, Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the ministry of health, has said.