(JNS.org) A report from the BBC’s head of statistics urges caution on using Gaza casualty figures from Palestinian sources, saying that the “conclusions being drawn from them may be premature” due to the high ratio of combat-aged men being killed.

According to the BBC, most news organizations have been using casualty figures provided by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which most recently reported that 1,843 Palestinians, 66 Israelis and one Thai national had been killed since Operation Protective Edge began on July 8. “Of those Palestinians, the status of 279 could not be identified, at least 1,354 were civilians, including 415 children and 214 women, the UN body reported,” the BBC said. However, the BBC said that among the civilian deaths, there are “more than three times as many men killed as women, while three times as many civilian men killed as fighters.” It is impossible to know for sure “how many of the dead in Gaza are civilians and how many were fighters.”