We all know about Gaza's casualty numbers. The Palestinian Health Ministry (i.e., Hamas) is continually updating the death toll from the Israeli occupiers. News is that more than 100 percent of Palestinian deaths were children. The papers were quick to report that Israel killed 500 Palestinians when it bombed a hospital in an airstrike, though they've walked that way back.
The last number this editor saw of Gazan casualties was 6,000. Of course, that number was made up, but Hamas has to show what a "disproportionate" response Israel is having to being invaded.
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior foreign affairs reporter for HuffPost, is going by the Gaza Health Ministry's numbers.
EXCLU: Biden yesterday questioned the death toll from Palestinians.
— Akbar Shahid Ahmed (@AkbarSAhmed) October 26, 2023
I reviewed ~20 State Dept cables that cited the Gaza Health Ministry to report casualties & rarely included caveats. In one instance that did, the report said the toll was likely higher.https://t.co/Ox119cwzFr
Ahmed writes:
In two reports written by State’s Operations Center and circulated within the department on Oct. 24 and 25, administration officials reported casualties in Gaza by citing two outside sources who quoted the Gaza ministry in their reports: Al Jazeera and the nonprofit Save the Children. And in one instance in which a situation report questioned the accuracy of figures from the Gaza ministry, on Oct. 21, the American official drafting the note wrote of the number of Gazans killed or injured the previous day: “The numbers are likely much higher, according to the UN and NGOs reporting on the situation.”
Two outside sources … who also quoted the Gaza ministry in their reports. So Al Jazeera and Save the Children are going by Hamas numbers.
Intercept D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim calls President Joe Biden's "undermining" of the Gaza ministry's body count "insidious."
The Biden decision to undermine the Gaza casualty numbers is so insidious. Even if he walks it back — no guarantees he will — it will lead to years of denial of what is happening, and probably will make it sizably worse given the impunity it conveys https://t.co/JqbIeNHUpD
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 26, 2023
The "Gaza Health Ministry" doesn't report breakdown of civilians and terrorists.
— Fusa (@GrapefruitGals) October 26, 2023
The numbers are meaningless without that distinction, but not surprising since Hamas wears civilian clothes and hides in residential neighborhoods while firing rockets.
The "Gaza Health Ministry" doesn't report breakdown of civilians and terrorists.
— Fusa (@GrapefruitGals) October 26, 2023
The numbers are meaningless without that distinction, but not surprising since Hamas wears civilian clothes and hides in residential neighborhoods while firing rockets.
"Undermining" the gross propaganda exaggerations of the Gaza casualties is "insidious." Got it.
— Interesting Times (@FreeTheBee22) October 26, 2023
What makes you think the U.S. is morally obligated to repeat these lies?
500 people died in a parking lot?
— pronounced PIE-zhuh (@Pijeypoo) October 26, 2023
Yeah, 500 people. And that was from debris from a misfired rocket headed for Israel.
They literally lied about a hospital bombing
— MLBeFUN (@MLBeFUN1) October 26, 2023
The hospital is still there.
GHM has a years long track record of spreading misinformation on casualty numbers. You don’t think THAT has led to detrimental impact on the situation?
— Russ Read (@RussCanRead) October 26, 2023
Why are you so invested in Hamas being seen as the correct party here?
— david m (@dave_m_) October 26, 2023
The numbers are clearly false. Stating that fact is far from "insidious."
— Patriots Fan (@PatsFan9999999) October 26, 2023
It’s the truth. Hamas habitually exaggerates and sometimes just makes up, casualty figures.
— Policentos (@Policentos) October 26, 2023
Some people in the replies are actually angry at Biden for "undermining" the numbers coming out of Gaza, via Hamas. We're going to take the word of people who invaded Israel and killed 1,400 innocent people in one day.
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