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. A more targeted battle plan, these allies have said, could reduce civilian casualties while still weakening Hamas. Some Israeli officials have made the same argument.

It’s now clear that Israel’s leaders have followed the advice, at least partially. The Israeli military announced a strategic shift two weeks ago. It has reduced the number of troops in northern Gaza. And the most tangible sign of the change is the decline in deaths among Gazan residents, as reported by the Hamas-controlled local government.

The number of Gazans dying each day has fallen almost in half since early December and almost two-thirds since the peak in late October. 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.