Gaza death toll inflated to promote narrative of Israel targeting civilians

News outlets failed to distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties, and relied on statistics from the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF DECEMBER 14, 2024 20:25 Updated: DECEMBER 14, 2024 20:28

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City November 30, 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/DAWOUD ABU ALKAS)

Civilian death counts in the Gaza war have been inflated to portray Israel as deliberately targeting civilians, an independent group of researchers at the Henry Jackson Society found in a study published on Saturday. 

The study, titled Questionable Counting: Analysing the death toll from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, found that leading global English-language news outlets failed to distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties and relied on statistics from the Hamas-run Health Ministry when reporting on the war in Gaza. 

Some of the key findings include men listed as women to inflate female fatalities, adults registered as children, disproportionate deaths of fighting-age men, the inclusion of natural deaths in reporting, and media underreporting of combatant deaths. 

According to the report, this failure contributes to a widespread narrative suggesting that Israel deliberatively targets civilians. 

The research reveals that despite regular reporting on Gaza casualties, many English-language publications omit the number of combatant casualties, failing to include them in the overall casualty count.

Palestinians, including rescuers, search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City November 18, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)

When reporting on the Gaza death toll, the Hamas-run Health Ministry does not differentiate between combatant and civilian casualties. 

Intelligence estimates indicate up to 30,000 Hamas combatants in Gaza, and Israel, which specifically tracks combatant casualties, has stated that over 17,000 Hamas combatants have been killed. 

Prominent English-language news sources examined

Researchers examined eight influential English-language news outlets, including BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Associated Press, Reuters, and ABC. The research group examined articles mentioning Gaza casualties from February to May 2024.

The dataset comprised 1,378 articles. The analysis was conducted both collectively and individually by publication, with sample sizes ranging from 111 articles (ABC) to 246 articles (The Guardian). The maximum confidence interval for our estimated rates is ± 4%.

The study found that only 3% of publications cite Israeli data, and Hamas-provided data accounts for 98% of all sources. Few sources scrutinized Hamas figures and treated the terrorist group as an established provider of data. 

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The research group states that they are an independent, volunteer-based group that contains members from around the world and operates without organizational or private sponsorship.