re: UN Did Not Halve Numbers of Gaza Civilians Killed

So here’s the deal. The numbers were never halved. What happened was the Gaza health ministry (take note, the UN is basing their report on the same Gaza health ministry as they have always been) revised their figures because they just came out with a total of people who’s remains had been identified.

So that’s why the total number remained unchanged. There’s just still thousands and thousand who are either unidentifiable or they haven’t gotten around to it yet. I don’t know exactly how they were calculating previously, but I guess equations of some sort to figure out probability of age and gender based on location of bomb strikes. The UN jumped to take the figure of verified remains for the women and children, while total number stayed the same. It doesn’t mean that all of the sudden it turned out Hamas members made up a much larger portion. Does everyone follow?

Regardless, the death toll is something I’ve never harped on because just don’t think anything is reliable during wartime regarding these things, and the larger impact won’t be known for years. It’s easy to see how this can become a complete catastrophe in the coming years though as excess mortality is tallied after displacement and food shortages, and lack of access to sanitation/healthcare. Look at any of the numbers from when we first got to Iraq vs when we left. Or look at Syria at different stages of that conflict.

No one here cares about these people anyway, so it was odd to see many of them beat their chests over this ridiculous “win” anyway.