In a sign of the war’s shift, daily deaths in Gaza are falling, data shows.
For more than a month now, the Biden administration and other allies of Israel have been urging its leaders to scale back the war in Gaza and reduce civilian casualties. It’s now clear that Israel’s leaders have followed the advice, at least partially. The most tangible sign of the change is the decline in deaths among Gazan residents, as reported by the Hamas-controlled local government.
Even as Gazan health officials said on Sunday that the overall death toll since Oct. 7 had surpassed 25,000 people, the number of people dying each day has fallen almost in half since early December and almost two-thirds since the peak in late October, data indicate. The chart here is based on a New York Times compilation of U.N. reports that rely on information from Gazan officials:
Over the past week, an average of 151 Gazans, including both Hamas fighters and civilians, have died each day. The breakdown in deaths between fighters and civilians remains unclear — and a matter of debate.
