Gaza’s Death Toll Was Largely Accurate in Early Days of War, Study Finds

A new study analyzing the first 17 days of Israel’s bombardment in the Gaza Strip found that the Gaza Ministry of Health’s death toll, a subject of debate at the time, was reliable.

The study, conducted by Airwars, a British organization that assesses claims of civilian harm in conflicts, added to previous research suggesting that the Health Ministry’s figures in the early days of the war were credible.

In late October, the Health Ministry published the names of about 7,000 people who had been killed in the first 17 days of the war. Of the thousands of Israeli airstrikes and other explosions during that time period, only a fraction — 350 events — were analyzed by Airwars for the study released Wednesday. Airwars said it was able to independently identify 3,000 names, most of which matched the ministry’s list.

As a result, Airwars said, it felt confident the ministry’s casualty reporting system at the beginning of the war was reliable and that it was working to analyze additional strikes and explosions.

Airwars reported that more recent ministry figures had become less accurate after the destruction of the territory’s health system.

The war has, however, clearly devastated the civilian population in Gaza. On Wednesday, the ministry, whose death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, said that more than 39,000 people had been killed.