Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on January 29 that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Israel’s military, have for the first time accepted the Gaza Ministry of Health’s (GMoH) estimate of 71,622 deaths of Palestinians (as of January 27, 2026) since the genocide began on October 7, 2023. In addition, 171,428 people have been reported as injured.

Israel has been denying these death toll figures for more than two years, with claims that the GMoH is a propaganda tool of Hamas, even though the GMoH has been counting the number of dead bodies by recording their names and ID numbers.

Israel had previously claimed that the death toll numbers were inflated and being used as propaganda to make Israel look bad—as if committing genocide; causing famine; targeting children and women; kidnapping civilians and torturing them in Israeli military prisons; forcing 90 percent of the population to move at least once; depriving more than two million people of medicine, fuel, water (according to estimates from Unicef, more than 70 percent of the territory’s 600 water and sanitation facilities have been damaged or destroyed); and prosthetic limbs; bombing mosques, hospitals, schools, civilian residences; targeting civilians at United States-led food distribution sites; killing aid and humanitarian workers, doctors and nurses; and killing 223 journalists didn’t make them look bad. Let’s not forget Israel’s attacks on sovereign states including the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Qatar and Iran since the genocidal campaign began.

Why is Israel now admitting to the GMoHs death toll numbers, and what do these numbers mean?

Let’s start with the death toll. Who is counted and who is not counted in the numbers? Here’s the latest breakdown according to the Ministry of Health. Children under 18 account for 20,179 deaths, men 18-59 account for 31,754, women 18-59 account for 10,427 and adults 60 and older account for 4,813 deaths. Children make up 30 percent of the deaths. Women make up about 16-20 percent of the deaths.

These numbers are individuals who were killed by Israeli military firepower. However, “indirect deaths,” such as those who died due to lack of medical care, dehydration, or disease are not. If a civilian was shot in the leg, and they received insufficient medical care and later died from their wound, they are not counted.

The GMoH further says at least 440 people have died of starvation and are not included in the calculations, nor are people who died at home, or elsewhere, and who were not brought to a medical facility.

Approximately 10,000 are missing, and the GMoH has no idea what percentage of those missing are dead.

A January 2025 Lancet study suggested the death toll was undercounted by 41 percent, and that “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable” to the Gaza war, the study found. According to calculations by a research team at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, at least 100,000 people have died or been killed in the genocide. Based on calculations by the researchers, between 99,997 and 125,915 people died or were killed in the Gaza Strip during the first two years of the war. The researchers’ median estimate is 112,069 dead Palestinians.

Lest we think that the killing and body counts have ceased, 488 Palestinians have been killed since the so-called ceasefire announcement on October 10, 2025, and 1,350 have been injured.

So we truly have no way to know what the actual figures of dead Palestinians are, but it’s safe to say it’s higher than even what the GMoH reports.

The next question is why now? Why is Israel confirming the GMoH death count now, after two years of denying the numbers?

It might be because of Trump and his sycophant son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and their so-called Board of Peace. In mid-January, Trump announced his plans to rebuild Gaza into what he calls “New Gaza.” In a couple of weeks, it will be called “Trump Gaza,” mark my words.

The AI blueprints that Kushner shared look more like a tacky Vegas wannabe (is there a non-tacky Vegas?) than the luxury destination that he promises. Of course, no Palestinian representation has been invited to his board. It is not exactly clear where the 2.2 million Gazans will reside amongst the skyscrapers and beach condos.

But before anything can be built, Israel and its allies have to clear the rubble left by the genocide, the literal rubble, which BBC estimates to be more than 60 million tons of debris. Israel destroyed or damaged more than 80 percent of the buildings in the Strip, completely flattening many residential blocks. Israel has also destroyed all major hospitals and universities, as well as most of the electricity and water systems, roads, and municipal services.

It might have to do with the U.N. and humanitarian organizations starting to gain greater access into Gaza. That process will undoubtedly uncover more atrocities—and more bodies, making it that much harder to deny the death toll. Israeli and U.S. authorities have to be quaking in their boots by the sheer number of dead bodies that are going to be uncovered before they can build Trump Plaza Gaza.

With the U.N. and other entities gaining access, it’s going to be a challenge to hide the bodies—literally. So in copping to the GMoH’s number of casualties, knowing that the number of dead bodies is certain to significantly rise in the coming months of clearing, Israel won’t look quite as bad when the new numbers come in. Being off by 80,000 deaths is better than being off by 135,000 deaths.

And maybe when the dust has settled, we’ll all know the true extent of the genocide.

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