🧵1/ I am somewhat dismayed (though sadly unsurprised) by this extremely disingenuous and callous reporting about Palestinian death figures. Claims that the UN have revised down its death toll are absolutely untrue but have been repeated by right wing outlets but also the CFR 🤔
2/ These media are focusing on these two infographics by the @ochaopt . The one on the left, published 6th May, the one on the right published 8th May. As you can see, total fatalities INCREASE, as opposed to decrease. What the propaganda is seaking to do is barely sophistry
3/All that's happening is the OCHA has added figures for the dead that have been identified. It quite clearly says that the breakdown DOES NOT include 10000 missing or buried under rubble.
4/ Even in the summary notes on both days it is quite clear the total fatalities has increased. It's not revised the number downwards, and has not stated that of the 10000 missing or buried under the rubble have magically changed sex or age.
5/ The fact is - the number of deaths has increased by over 100 in two days. Sadly some people are trying to somehow frame this is a decrease and a propaganda win is disturbing. It's as if killing 24686 people is fine, but 34000 is not.
6/ and now you have people like the Israeli Ambassador to Belgium sharing the @FDD 's inaccurate and seemingly dishonest take on the figures- as if she were sharing a UN document
7/ And of course "fact checking" sites like "honest reporting" are trying to add a veneer of fact checking authenticity to the disinformation. Honest reporting have previously spread fake news about Reuters and AP journalists participating in Oct 7th - endangering journalists.
8/ Today, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, was asked about the 'halving'. He refutes the 'halving' narrative, stating clearly that MoH have FULLY identified 24,686 of the dead. Haq states that the >35000 number of fatalities remains "Unchanged"...."What's changed is the ministry of health in Gaza has updated the breakdown of fatalities, for whom FULL details have been documented". Of the remaining 10,000 dead, Haq states "which of those are children, which of those are women, will be re-established once the full identification process is complete". The process of documentation is "ongoing". Haq then reaffirms his belief in the accuracy of the MoH fatality figures. You can watch the clip here.
9/ Also some are acting like there has been some attempt to deceive. These Ministry of Health stats from April 6th show a clear delineation in fatalities for which there are "complete data" and "incomplete data". It's been known (and should be expected) that there is partial data for many of the dead given the destruction and fact Israel aren't allowing independent verification. In April they noted there was incomplete data for around 11371 figures. People are also making it sound like the "UN" are halving MoH estimates, when in fact they are going on the MoH figures.
Great thread on this
10/ another subtle aspect of this are headlines saying UN have halved "estimates". That's not true. The MoH have confirmed and identified 70% of the victims, while 30% remain of fatalities have incomplete details. That estimate has not changed
11/ So far here are the ranks of most shared domains- as you can see, foxnews and @nationalpost got shared a lot. In terms of twitter accounts, @FoxNews , the islamophobic disinfluencer account @visegrad24 and @IsraelMFA got the most impressions sharing the disinformation
12/ It should be noted that the number of identified dead women should also be around 24% not 20%, and men 44%, not 40% - this is because the 8% elderly fatalities are also men and women. Assuming roughly 50% of those killed are men & 50% women then that should be factored in
13/ *** Another element of dishonesty is that some of the sources discount the remaining 10,000. Even if one were to assume the percentages of the 10000 were identical to those already counted, the total number of deaths would be as followed. (Again, a big assumption). That being case deaths of children wouldn't be 50% - but 30%. Again based on a total hypothetical but Again shows how stats can be misrepresented.
14/ Latest figures by MoH also emphasise the 10,000 unidentified fatalities - published 4th May. (some trying to muddy waters by saying this 10,000 figure is only GMO).
