The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the death toll given by the health ministry in Gaza has proved to be “credible” in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current war, AFP reports.

“In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem.

Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed since the conflict began, explaining how the agency’s toll reflected the broader casualty rate in Gaza.

He suggested the ratio of UNRWA staff killed to the total number of agency workers was in line with the ratio of Gazans killed to the territory’s overall population, as provided by the health ministry.