The burden of imprecision: on the limitation of statistics
The Al-Nafaq area in Gaza City, scenes of widespread destruction and devastation, 14 October 2025
Nicki Kattoura writes in Mondoweiss on 20 October 2025:
The Zionist entity has killed between 65,000 and 680,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7. The range is staggering, although the larger number is not necessarily the ceiling; it is simply the one we know of.
The first number comes from the Gaza Ministry of Health, which collates data on every single martyr, including their full name, ID number, age, place of residence, birthday, and gender. In a Drop Site interview with Dr. Zaher al-Wahaidi, the Director of the Information Center, he describes how the identity of each martyr is corroborated and counted by every hospital that receives the injured. Not included in the number are those trapped underneath the rubble of collapsed buildings or those who die “indirect deaths.” These include children who are starved to death, cancer patients who can’t access treatment, or those who are killed by disease because of a collapsed healthcare system. The only ones they count in the official toll are those killed by the impact of a missile.
680,000 is the new projected death toll, based on the rate, longevity, and intensity of Zionist brutality. Many have now assumed that number in their vocabulary, rightfully arguing that 65,000 is such a severe undercount that reciting it is itself a form of genocide denial.
The only confirmed fact is that there is no confirmed death toll in Gaza. We know that the statistic shared by the Ministry of Health is the minimum number. We have seen too many mass graves, children vaporized by Israeli bombs, and Telegram posts sharing daily lists of martyrs for the rate of killing to stagnate this much. We know that those who count our martyrs have been martyred themselves, that the targeted killing of journalists has created an information blackout, and that the infrastructure needed to account for the dead has been decimated.