So says Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora, making the death toll significantly higher than the previous figures of around 600:
“Over 900 (have been) killed and 3,000 injured so far, one third of the casualties are children under 12,” Saniora told participants at a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Muslim world’s largest political group.
Someone – I think it was the BBC – cast this figure in question yesterday. According to them, Siniora is counting the missing as well as the confirmed dead. On 3 Aug., AP had a toll of 548 confirmed dead and Reuters had 683. (These figures from a BBC article.) I suspect counting the missing works about half the time. Apparently in Qana the initial count of 54 dead included 22 missing, who were later found to have escaped the building. But then there are also many people believed trapped beneath rubble, whom rescuers can smell but not reach because of the threat from Israeli warplanes.