The number of civilians killed in the Gaza conflict has been inflated to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent people, a report claims.

Researchers accuse the Gaza ministry of health of overstating casualty data by including natural deaths, failing to differentiate between civilian and combat casualties and over-reporting the numbers of women and children killed.

The study by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) think tank claims that the figures have been manipulated for propaganda purposes by the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, with international media outlets happy to repeat them uncritically.

The Gaza ministry of health has estimated that more than 44,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its military response to the Oct 7 attacks.

The HJS found that, based on Israeli and US military and intelligence reports, around 17,000 of these were Hamas fighters but claims that this has been frequently overlooked in media reports.