Gaza City, Gaza Strip — In a surprising move, Hamas has significantly revised its reported death toll figures from the ongoing Gaza conflict, removing thousands of previously listed casualties, including over a thousand children. This revision casts doubts on the accuracy of the initial casualty data provided by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health and raises questions about the use of inflated numbers in the portrayal of the conflict.
Salo Aizenberg, a researcher with the U.S.-based NGO Honest Reporting, highlighted the discrepancies in Hamas’s recent update for March 2025. Aizenberg noted that the new report quietly omits approximately 3,400 individuals who were listed as fatalities in the August and October 2024 updates. This revelation comes amid ongoing scrutiny over the validity of casualty figures that emerge from conflict zones.
The casualty lists, routinely released as PDF documents by Gaza’s Health Ministry, have historically been a primary source for international media covering death tolls in the territory. However, these lists have been criticized for their potential to be falsified, as they are often filled out via an accessible online form, without stringent verification measures in place.
In response to these latest findings, Andrew Fox, an analyst at the Henry Jackson Society and former British paratrooper, suggested that the significant reduction in reported deaths might be an effort by Hamas to maintain its credibility. Fox explained that errors in previous reports could partially be attributed to system failures in November 2023 that hindered accurate record-keeping.
Further analysis by Fox and his team, which included detailed cross-checking of the names listed in the casualty documents against multiple sources, indicates that many of the names could not be substantiated at all. “It appears Hamas is attempting to cleanse the lists of unverifiable data,” Fox stated.
Adding to the complexity, demographic analysis within the lists suggests a shift from earlier assertions that predominately civilians were casualties. The latest data reveal that about 72% of those aged between 13 and 55 years were male, aligning closer to the typical age range of Hamas combatants, thereby contradicting the group’s narrative of civilian targeting.
The IDF, in contrast, has maintained that during its operations, it has killed approximately 20,000 Hamas combatants and has been meticulous in efforts to avoid civilian casualties, emphasizing that it does not target children or non-combatants intentionally.
Critically, the misreporting presented in Hamas’s figures also underscores broader issues concerning the portrayal of conflict casualties on the international stage. Often, numbers can be manipulated to gain international sympathy or justify political positions. According to the Henry Jackson Society, there has been a systematic inflation of death tolls, with Hamas failing to distinguish adequately between civilian and combatant deaths, while sometimes reporting fatalities among women and children that were exaggerated or incorrect.
The recent developments have reinvigorated debates about the reliability of casualty figures provided in conflict zones and highlight the need for rigorous verification by international media and institutions before publication. As the situation evolves, the international community continues to watch closely, acknowledging the complexities inherent in accurately reporting from war-torn regions.