One official noted that the Palestinian health ministry’s death counts may even be an undercount.
President Joe Biden cast doubt this week on the Palestinian health ministry’s death count in Israel’s current genocidal campaign against Palestinians — but Biden’s own administration officials rely on those same death counts for their reports, and have even said in one instance that the ministry’s count may be too low.
According to a review by HuffPost of nearly 20 “situation reports” from the State Department, which represent the U.S.’s assessments on the ground and are intended to inform policy decisions, officials have often cited casualties reported by the health ministry in Gaza. In these reports, which date back to October 8, the day after Hamas’s initial attack on Israel, the ministry’s counts are cited at least 12 times, the analysis found.
In one instance, in an October 21 report, an official said that the Gaza ministry’s numbers may actually be an undercount of the death toll. “The numbers are likely much higher, according to the UN and NGOs reporting on the situation,” the official reportedly wrote.
The ministry’s death counts were also included in a report provided on October 25, just hours before Biden would say that he has “no confidence” in those same death counts in a press conference on the White House lawn.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said. “I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Biden’s remark sparked outrage from advocates and experts, who have said that the health ministry’s death counts have historically been reliable and are cited by many international organizations, including the UN. The State Department has also cited these figures prior to this month’s violence.
“Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, told The Washington Post. “In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time which there’s been some major discrepancy.”
Advocates add that questioning the death tolls — especially in such a public manner — only furthers Zionist propaganda and serves to justify and perpetuate the genocide. “Questioning death tolls directly dehumanizes Palestinians. It’s a key part of genocide denial. Israel is murdering Palestinians. By minimizing this, the U.S. is laying the groundwork for more death,” Jewish anti-Zionist group IfNotNow wrote on social media. “Internally, Biden administration officials regularly cite the Gaza Ministry of Health. Yet Biden and White House spokespeople are publicly questioning these figures in an attempt to remove their own responsibility for funding death and destruction.”
After Biden’s comments on Wednesday, the Gazan health ministry released a list of the names of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed by Israel’s genocidal siege in the past three weeks. According to the health ministry, the Israeli military has killed at least 7,326 Palestinians since it began its current bombing campaign in Gaza. Since Israel declared war on Palestinians on October 7, Israeli settlers and the Israeli military have killed at least 90 Palestinians in the West Bank, and Israel has more than doubled the number of Palestinians in the West Bank being held in Israeli jails, with 10,000 Palestinian prisoners being held. The death toll will likely rise as Israeli forces prepare for a ground invasion into Gaza in the coming days.
archive link: https://archive.ph/TvwrO
Let’s see. Israel becoming a international pariah if there is a really strong case that they committed war crime. The hospital bombing was shown not to be from IDF. Those do points to Hamas being unreliable. And of course, Israel has a mission to make themselves look good as possible, which is why I wouldn’t rely on them either.
So, we don’t have anything for now. As I said, I hope more information comes out. Preferably from one that is not from Israel or Hamas.
You’re a fucking moron if you believe the shrapnel story. Do you believe in the 40 babies too?
Considering that there were backtracking from the initial claims, and further checks from other countries. The easiest explanation is that it was not from IDF.
For the babies thing, I haven’t tried checking those links. As far as I know, it’s a viral claim, however, it doesn’t seem to be verified to be done by Hamas. So, I have no reason to believe in that story.
Backtracking from the harebrained claim that the missile came from Hamas, you mean? Or that a piece of shrapnel could level a hospital?
Hamas has little reason to do shit like this and the IDF is observably targeting ambulances and other blatantly civilian entities (like bakeries, for some reason). What do you think is the simplest way to explain it?
They were backtracking from the claim that Israel has done it. Now, there doesn’t seem to be a conclusion because of the lack of independent investigation which is sorely desired.
The easiest explanation is that it was Hamas or some other allied group given that we know that Hamas has attacked. Israel has international partners and has the issues of Muslim neighborhood wanting them gone. Israel can’t afford to be international pariah.
This is delusional. We already know they have a longstanding habit of picking off ambulances and other civilian targets. They have already cut off food, water, medicine, and so on to Gaza. They are already doing heinous shit like they have been doing for their whole miserable existence.
Spelling errors make it really hard to follow you because your ideology is so incoherent that it’s difficult to make a guess that sounds plausible. Is it “we know what Hamas has attacked” as though they a) had any higher proclivity than Israel to attack civilian infrastructure and b) that would mean that any civilian target is more likely to be struck by them, even when they are mainly hitting Palestinians? That would be deranged, but given the other thing you said, I’m forced to assume it.
It’s not delusional, and Israel did comply with pressure to resume aid for Gazan civilians even though it will go to Hamas instead. If they didn’t, they would be pariahs. And we know that Muslim countries do want Jewish people gone. There lies the issue with supporting religious fundamentalism. I’ll agree with you on one point, if they aren’t backed up by Democratic nations, then Israel would likely to do more heinous shit, and part of the contract with being backed by Democratic nations is to comply with rules of war.
That would be a). There is no excuse to attack a festival. And that alone is enough to question Hamas.
The point of attacking the festival wasn’t that the a priori concept of civilian blood gives them a hard-on, it was an attack on the Israeli population. Why the fuck would they be attacking Palestinian civilians? Them not meeting your liberal sensibilities does not mean they are irrational sadists seeking to gun down anything with a pulse.
I don’t know why you’re justifying it by saying it was an attack on Israeli population. Attacking civilians can never be justified. If it was an attack on the military, that would be something else.
Because attacking their own do allow framing it on their enemy. Hence, why you shouldn’t take Hamas at their words. As I said before, you can’t take Israel seriously either. There’s also fog of war issue as independent investigation can’t take much place on it.
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Where exactly did you find that it was from Israel’s side toward Gaza? At the moment, there isn’t much independent investigation on this, unfortunately. So, I can’t make a conclusion here yet.
If they mean this report, which was trivially easy to find based on keywords, the footage bandied about by the IDF as a smoking gun is blatantly an Israeli rocket, though also surely not the one that actually hit the hospital. The IDF is plainly lying using footage that looks striking, the same sort of low-effort bullshit they always do because all Zionists need are lurid details, true and relevant ones or not.
One of the larger points in favor of “this shit was the IDF” was that, as reported in the same article, the rocket hit the courtyard where people had evacuated for safety. Israel loves targeting people who are sheltering (see them giving evacuation directions and then bombing the evacuation site on another instance)
Paywall, but as I said, there’s not enough information on that. So, I can’t honestly say who has done that.
On the second part, that one is definitely worth a look at as it is a war crime to intentionally strike civilians, and looking at all possible angles should be looked at. There’s a stronger case here than the the rocket striking hospital vicinity thing. The lack of follow-up to this points to Israel. But, I doubt nations will want to cut aid simply because of a single war crime.
You were perfectly happy to say Israel didn’t do it just before.
On which part? Hospital or evacuees thing?
Hospital
Yes. Because I don’t find it very likely. All eyes are on Gaza or at least all eyes are trying to look at Gaza at the moment. Israel has a lot of international partners with democratic government. Not to mention muslim countries surrounding them just itching at a chance to attack them. You know what that means? That means they can’t afford to look bad to others. With no reliable corroborating findings to point to what happened, I just can’t say that Israel did it at all, and just say that it’s unlikely.