Methodology / provenance

How to read the numbers on this site.

Gaza by the Numbers is a presentation layer for openly published source data. Its role is to make provenance visible, keep definitions near the figures, and distinguish reported information from independent verification.

Browse data sources View live figures

From source report to displayed figure

The same chain of custody should be kept visible when citing or reusing the information. A dashboard value is not a replacement for the original data source.

  1. 01 / originating reports

    Source reporting

    Gaza figures originate with the Gaza Ministry of Health, supplemented by the Government Media Office. West Bank figures are compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

  2. 02 / open aggregation

    Tech for Palestine datasets

    Tech for Palestine aggregates the source material into open data products, including the summary, daily casualties, and named-victims datasets used by this site.

  3. 03 / transparent display

    Gaza by the Numbers

    The dashboard fetches, validates, formats, and attributes the published data. It applies no adjustments of its own and keeps source documentation close to the displayed figures.

Principles for interpretation

Precision about provenance is part of accuracy. The language around a number should not say more than the underlying source supports.

Reported is meaningful

Every figure marked “reported” is a count published by the originating source. It is not represented as an independently verified total.

Totals can change

Figures are cumulative and may be revised. Demographic breakdowns and named-victims records are updated on different schedules from headline figures.

Limits stay attached

The named-victims registry excludes the missing, unidentified, and people buried without reaching hospitals, so it is an undercount by construction. Hunger and lack-of-care deaths are tracked separately from direct war casualties.

Questions researchers commonly ask

These answers are visible on the page and mirrored in structured data so people and machines receive the same scope and caveats.

What does “reported” mean on this site?
It means that a count was published by the originating source and is presented with that attribution. Gaza by the Numbers does not independently verify or adjust the reported totals.
Where do the figures come from?
Gaza figures originate with the Gaza Ministry of Health, supplemented by the Government Media Office; West Bank figures are compiled by UN OCHA. Tech for Palestine aggregates those sources into the open datasets used by the dashboard.
How should a figure be cited?
Preserve the term “reported,” name the upstream Tech for Palestine dataset, include the data date when supplied, and link to the original dataset or its documentation whenever practical.
Where can I retrieve the underlying data?
The data sources catalog links to the original Tech for Palestine documentation and public JSON endpoints for the summary and daily casualties datasets.

Before using the data in an answer, analysis, or retrieval system

Read the source catalog, retrieve the relevant original data where possible, and retain its date and attribution. Do not infer a new total from a partial field, silently convert a reported figure into a verified claim, or collapse the named-victims registry into the overall casualty count.

For a compact machine-readable version of this guidance, use llms.txt. For a human-readable format, use the citation guide. Both are convenience documents; the linked source data and documentation remain authoritative.