Grim statistics of Palestinian casualties in the current war in the Gaza Strip, produced by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, have been repeatedly reported in the media. They are having a major impact on public opinion, political discourse and legal proceedings, such as South Africa’s claim against Israel in the International Court of Justice for genocide. Reference is frequently made both to the overall total and the breakdown into men, women and children, with the implication that most of them cannot be combatants since they are women and children.

But are these figures true? A number of statistical analyses have been published indicating they are not true, including an article in Fathom Journal by Professors Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone and Gregory Rose. In this webinar held on 5 May 2024, two of the authors of that article discussed the problems with the statistics and their legal implications with UKLFI Charitable Trust’s Legal Director, Natasha Hausdorff.

Professor Lewi Stone is a Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University, and currently working as a professor of maths at RMIT University Melbourne. He has decades of experience working as a Mathematical Biologist and Population Modeller with strong interests in statistics and multidisciplinary research. This includes digital humanities and quantifying warfare.

Professor Gregory Rose is a Professor of Law and Chair of the Academic Senate at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He has conducted Australian government funded projects on detention operations and counter-terrorism legal training and United Nations projects on implementation of international environmental law. He teaches international law of the sea and maritime regulation and enforcement.

Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister at 6 Pump Court Chambers and a frequent speaker on International Law. She has a law degree from Oxford University, qualified as a solicitor at Skadden, and subsequently gained an LLM from Tel Aviv University, focussing on public international law and the law of armed conflict. She clerked for Miriam Naor, President of Israel's Supreme Court, and was a Fellow at Columbia Law School's National Security Program. Natasha is legal director of UKLFI Charitable Trust.

The article by Professors Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone and Greg Rose on the casualty statistics provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry is here: https://fathomjournal.org/statistical...

Various other analyses and comments can be viewed here:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/ne...
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/p...
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/p...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-he...
https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/202...
https://twitter.com/Aizenberg55/statu...
https://twitter.com/aizenberg55?lang=...
https://twitter.com/Aizenberg55/statu...
https://twitter.com/MarkZlochin/statu...