Talking to the BBC’s At present programme, Mr Griffiths mentioned: “Gaza is a struggle zone and the gathering of information and statistics, whereas admirable and needed, is initially secondary to truly delivering some help and, secondly, very troublesome in instances of insecurity and violence.
“So… be practical, please, about what’s attainable in the course of what we’re seeing in Gaza. I believe we’re very cautious about these figures and I believe it is not proper guilty the messenger who’s making an attempt to get fact out of what’s a really, very difficult scenario.”
In the beginning of the struggle final October, the Hamas-run well being ministry solely reported deaths for which particulars had been registered in hospitals, whereas from November, the GMO included an extra class of deaths recorded in “dependable media stories”.
On 6 Might, OCHA reported 34,735 deaths – of which there have been greater than 9,500 ladies and greater than 14,500 youngsters, citing the GMO as its supply.
Then two days later, the UN launched an extra report, switching its sourcing to the well being ministry.
The results of this was that though the general recorded dying toll was virtually unchanged (34,844), the variety of registered deaths of ladies (4.959) and kids (7,797) as of 30 April had each fallen considerably.
This distinction was as a result of these people with incomplete info weren’t included within the demographic breakdown.
Reacting to the change within the official UN estimates, Israeli International Minister Israel Katz referred to as on the UN Secretary Basic Antonio Guterres to step down.
“The miraculous resurrection of the lifeless in Gaza. The UN had lowered its estimate of ladies and kids killed in Gaza by 50% and claims that it relied on information from the Hamas Ministry of Well being,” Mr Katz wrote in a put up on X on Monday.
“Anybody who depends on faux information from a terrorist organisation with a purpose to promote blood libels in opposition to Israel is antisemitic and helps terrorism. @antonioguterres, resign!”
Israel started its navy marketing campaign within the Gaza Strip within the wake of Hamas’s assaults on 7 October, during which 1,200 individuals – principally civilians – have been killed, and 252 others have been taken hostage.