On May 11th 2024, a Palestinian man covered the bodies of children killed by Israeli shelling in the garden of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Bala, in the central Gaza Strip.

 　On May 11th 2024, amid the continuing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement in Palestine, a Palestinian man covered the bodies of children killed by Israeli shelling in the garden of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Bala, in the central Gaza Strip.

　　The United Nations announced on May 13 that the death toll in the Gaza Strip still exceeds 35,000, but that not all bodies have been identified. The number of bodies whose identities have been fully confirmed is 24,686. This figure includes the confirmed bodies (7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly people, and 10,006 men). There were still more than 10,000 bodies whose identities had not been fully confirmed.

　　The UN team in Gaza said that due to the huge number of casualties in the Israel-Palestinian war, the UN investigation team was unable to independently verify the figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health. The UN investigation team said the actual number of dead could be higher. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) also expressed concern about the limited humanitarian access in Gaza, saying it was a “life-and-death issue” for people living in the besieged area.

　On May 13, the Israeli Foreign Ministry accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of manipulating the figures for the number of dead. Israel questioned the sudden halving of the number of women and children reported dead by the Gaza Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Gaza Ministry of Health had a good data collection and analysis capacity, and that its previous reports had been reliable.

Warning: A Palestinian man covers the bodies of children killed in Israeli bombardment, in the yard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Dayr al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on May 11, 2024. (Photo by AFP)