The Associated Press analyzed the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war using data from the Gaza Strip Health Ministry. The analysis shows that the proportion of women and children killed has decreased over time.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-run Gaza government, does not separate civilian and combatant deaths. Therefore, the proportion of women and children killed is used as a proxy for the civilian death toll.
The ministry has released underlying data for its daily updates on social media in late October, early January, late March, and the end of April. These data sets include names, genders, birth dates, and Israeli-issued ID numbers of those the ministry says died in the war.
The AP analysis focused on nearly 23,000 deaths identified by these criteria as of April. However, the daily death toll reported by the ministry, which is often repeated by foreign media, is much higher and includes unclaimed bodies, decomposed remains, or those with lost records due to Israeli raids on hospitals, and individuals with incomplete records.
As of April, the ministry’s daily death toll stood at 34,622 and rose to 36,379 by the end of May. This count is not accompanied by detailed underlying data.
The data reveals that while the overall death toll has increased, the proportion of women and children killed has decreased: from 64% in October to 54% by the end of April. In April alone, women and children made up 38% of newly identified deaths.
Since March, the Health Ministry’s data has included bodies not fully identified due to missing Israeli-issued ID numbers, with 402 such cases in March and 1,699 in April.
The data provided to AP also had duplicates. In March, 531 individuals were counted twice, and in April, 11 individuals were duplicated. The AP excluded these and the not fully identified bodies from its analysis, which did not significantly impact the proportion of women and children killed.
When the war ends, the Health Ministry is expected to fully identify more bodies, providing a clearer record of the war’s overall toll and its impact on different groups.
