The UN affirmed that the death toll given by the health ministry in Gaza had proved to be “credible” in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current conflict.
“In the past during the five or six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip these figures were considered credible and no one ever really challenged them” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Occupied Jerusalem on Friday.
Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed since the conflict began explaining how the agency’s toll reflected the broader casualty rate in Gaza.
He suggested the ratio of UNRWA staff killed to the total number of agency workers was in line with the ratio of Gazans killed to the territory’s overall population as provided by the health ministry.
“We have more or less the same percentage” he told journalists.
Lazzarini’s comments came just days after US President Joe Biden said he had “no confidence” in the figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry.
A day later the health ministry responded by releasing the names identity card numbers gender and age of almost 7000 of those killed in Gaza.
