Throughout the ongoing war unfolding in Gaza, we have been reminded of the "barbarous" actions of Israel's military, typically measured via daily updates to the number of women and children that have been killed. Unfortunately, the only group providing these figures is the Gaza Ministry of Health which is run by Hamas. That detail hasn't stopped the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) from dutifully reporting those figures without raising any questions. However, that situation appeared to change this month. The latest Health Ministry quote said that 9,500 women and 14,500 children have been killed in the fighting, with the OCHA reporting the same. But only two days later, the UN revised those numbers significantly. In fact, they nearly slashed them by half. (Fox News)

In a dramatic shift, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revised its data pertaining to the number of Palestinian casualties in the seven-month-old Gaza war, reducing almost by half the number of women and children it previously said were killed in the hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas.

According to an infographic published in OCHA’s daily report on May 6, the number of women killed in the fighting was said to be 9,500, while the organization, which admits to relying on figures from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, claimed that 14,500 children had been killed since the war began on Oct. 7.

Two days later, in its May 8 report, the U.N. agency appeared to have cut the number nearly in half, showing instead that some 4,959 women and 7,797 children had been killed so far in the war.

A spokesman for the UN was asked how the numbers had shifted so dramatically. He said that the figures are only "estimates" and that they sometimes change based on the situation on the ground in Gaza. But he also noted that the UN has recently been able to have some of their own people doing independent research inside of the Strip. Perhaps that's how the inaccuracies were uncovered. 

What Hamas has been doing with the Ministry of Health should have been obvious from the beginning. Israel has been warning everyone about this constantly. Hamas knows they can't defeat Israel militarily, so they're trying to bring them down through a public relations campaign. By vastly inflating these numbers they manage to get other international organizations to wring their collective hands over all of the "innocent women and children" being killed by the IDF. Of course, precisely how "innocent" many of those Gaza "civilians" are is certainly up for debate, as we've discussed here in the past.

In these information wars, the United Nations is a much larger problem than Hamas. People are already aware that Hamas is a terrorist information and they spread lies as it suits their purposes. But the UN carries a patina of credibility on the international stage, though it is largely undeserved. They stand ready to schedule votes at the drop of a hat that would undermine Israel. The United States is the only country that has traditionally stood in their way, or at least we did until Joe Biden took charge. 

As callous as it may sound to say this, in the end, the actual number of non-uniformed Gazan civilians, including children, being killed isn't the central issue. It's regrettable to be sure, but as I have reminded people repeatedly, bad things happen in war. It was never going to be possible to completely wipe out Hamas in the Gaza Strip without some collateral damage. Israel has gone far above and beyond what should be expected in terms of warning the Gazans prior to opening up fresh rounds of attacks. Sadly, this has no doubt allowed many Hamas fighters to slip away among the civilians as well, but at least their infrastructure is being effectively destroyed. Hamas has been given limitless chances to lay down their arms, release all of the hostages, and surrender. They have chosen not to do so. What we're witnessing now is the result of choices that they have made.