Gaza’s health ministry has removed 1,852 individuals from its official list of fatalities since October, as some deaths were due to natural causes or the individuals were alive but had been imprisoned. Consequently, the current death toll stands at 50,609. Most of the removed names (97%) were initially recorded via an online form used by families to report deaths where bodies were missing. The head of the statistics team at Gaza’s health ministry, Zaher Al Wahidi, stated that these names were removed as a precautionary measure pending judicial investigation. Al Wahidi explained that many of these individuals died of natural causes, such as heart attacks triggered by explosions or illnesses caused by living conditions in damaged homes.

Others listed were found to be imprisoned or reported missing without sufficient evidence of death. Mr. Wahidi suggested some families might have submitted false claims due to the possibility of receiving government financial assistance. This marks the largest removal of names since the conflict began and follows 1,441 names removed between August and October – 54% of which came from hospital morgue records.

Gabriel Epstein, a research assistant at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, stated that there is no indication the errors were due to deliberate manipulation to inflate the number of women and children among the dead. The demographic breakdown of the removed entries does not suggest such manipulation, with 41% of removed individuals being men aged between 18 and 60, and the remaining 59% being women, children, and the elderly.

Al Wahidi noted that until October, names submitted through the online form were added to the official death list before judicial confirmation, leading to previous inaccuracies with 1,295 deaths being removed, including 474 later reinstated. This practice of provisional inclusion has led some to question the accuracy of earlier lists.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/thousands-of-names-removed-from-official-gaza-death-list-13341928