Almost daily for a year, news outlets have been reporting the horrific, steadily rising number of deaths amid the Israel and Hamas war.
On October 25, 2024, the number being reported is 42,792 – but can we actually trust this number?
Israel claims the number of people killed in Gaza – the number we hear every day – is inflated.
Meanwhile, others say the actual number of people killed is far more than what’s being reported.
How do you count a war zone death toll? Professor Michael Spagat explains in The Briefing:
On this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert speaks with Professor Michael Spagat, chair of Every Casualty Counts, who explains how deaths in Gaza and other active warzones are verified.
He makes a passionate case for acknowledging the individual humanity of everyone who dies in war, rather than thinking of them as a number on a page.
“It’s not just about counting, but it’s the recognition of individuals who have been killed, he said.
“Although you get the numbers as a byproduct of trying to recognise individuals one by one, I think it’s part of what we are as human beings. The fact that we get civil society organisations springing up to do this kind of work shows that there’s a need for it.
“Relatives of people who have been killed want to see that their loved ones are recognised as individuals who lived and then died, unfortunately, in a conflict.
“Individual recognition is an attempt to overcome the dehumanisation that seems to take place during conflict, that seems to make it okay to just kill lots of anonymous people.”