The proportion of Gazan women and children killed during the Israel-Hamas war has been steadily declining according to a recent analysis conducted by the Associated Press based on data shared by the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Analysing the daily death tolls released by the Hamas-run ministry – which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths in its records – the AP found that the rate of women and children killed fell by more than 20 per cent between October and April even as the overall death toll rose.

In October, the Ministry reported that 64 per cent of the 6,745 people killed were women and children. Of the fully identified deaths in the month of April, women and children made up 38 per cent.

The Ministry’s daily death toll – 34,622 at the end of April and 36,379 at the end of May – is not accompanied by underlying data when shared, and AP found that the figure publicised by the Ministry is significantly higher than that found in the data and not limited to individuals who have been fully identified.

The AP analysis was based on the roughly 23,000 individuals fully identified – with names, ages, genders and Israeli-issued ID – by the health ministry as of April. The ministry stated that 9,940 of the dead – 29 per cent of its April total – were not listed in the data because they remain “unidentified,” meaning the bodies were not claimed by families, decomposed beyond recognition, or their records were lost during Israeli raids on hospitals.

The report by AP found that among the bodies fully identified, some were listed twice, with 531 individuals counted twice in March and 11 counted twice in April.

In February, Gazan officials claimed that 75 per cent of those killed were women and children, though this figure was never verified in a data breakdown. In March, the ministry’s daily reports claimed that women and children constituted 72 per cent of the dead, even as underlying data reviewed by AP showed a much lower percentage.

As Israel faces mounting criticism over the number of civilian casualties in Gaza and its IDF campaign enters its eighth month, AP’s analysis points to the United Nations’ failure to address the imperfections in the Health Ministry’s data, not to mention the contradiction of its own public statements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile insisted that the IDF are taking unprecedent measures to reduce civilian casualties, stating in an interview last month: “We use leaflets, we use millions of text messages, phone calls. We actually call the people, give up the benefit of surprise, tell them: ‘Get out of the way. Get out of the war zone so that we can accomplish our military objectives while you’re in a safe place.’”

The Gaza Health ministry is the only official source for Gazan casualties. AP’s analysis corroborates the findings of statisticians and researchers over the past several months, who have pointed to the “statistical impossibility” of the Health Ministry’s widely quoted casualty data.