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
Israelis are slaughtering Palestinians. This was their plan for decades. They are making their play now. This is no longer about “hamas” (whoever paid them to do their bit as mercenaries), this is the old “russian land grab” in the middle east and as the Israelis at protest rallies have stated quite clearly - lets kill all the animal Arabs. And STILL they’re trying to milk the “victim” card.
And now we (the U.S.) ALMOST have another “big equipment” confrontation in the middle east. yay war pigs. yay death merchants.
Will the rest of us never put a stop to these fuckers?
this is the old “russian land grab” in the middle east
If the Russians conducted war like Israelis, Kiev would already be a parking lot. Lucky for most involved, they are not a genocidal ethnostate, whatever other criticisms may be made of them.
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What does that even mean? Are you on the wrong board?
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As history shows time and time again, AFTER the ‘revolution’ the political disease sets back in. The new dogma may be different from the old, it may be the same thing with “new” promises that things will be different. But they’re not. Ever. The same rot creeps back in and the same types of people take advantage of “leaders/followers” - just as they have all the way down through human history.
If claiming “anarchy” is the way towards humanity’s salvation… while anarchy might be cathartic, it’s not an answer to “why do most people follow instead of exhibiting autonomy?” - actually, NO form of government ‘allows’ autonomy and while anarchy isn’t government, it leaves the void where government will step in again.
Perhaps if we redid the entire human race from scratch there could be social structures capable of group efforts that focus individual autonomy, but we’re way past any such point at present. Civilization relies on education and all the properties imbued by education - and we (the entire human race) are running away from that and glorifying savagery rather than thought.
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AES socialist
“Real socialism, better known as actually existing socialism or developed socialism, was an ideological catchphrase popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union. The term referred to the Soviet-type economic planning implemented by the Eastern Bloc at that particular time. Wikipedia”
So you think there was no revolution in Russia? In China? How quaint that you cherry pick tidbits of information and claim them whole.
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What? Why are you on Lemmy if you dont want to read quality journalism submitted by anonymous users?
There’s the door.
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Yeah what the fuck is up with those low quality sources on Lemmy recently?
“Truthout”? Sounds straight out of a Trumper’s daily read.
He’s correct to not be confident about death counts. However, I don’t think Israel’s death count should be relied on either. There’s no reason to take the side of Israel government or Hamas. I do hope that there’s independent reports we can look at instead.
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Feel free to show me that. If there is a problem such as a link, then I’d have to rule it out.
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That seem to be biased given that it comes from Gaza. I’d rather look for one where said country don’t benefit from either Gaza/Israel, and can corroborates their claim with evidence. Fog of War is a bit of a issue now.
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It’s an agency on a Hamas-controlled government. That is questionable in of by itself. I’m looking for one that is not from Israel or Hamas.
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It is assessed by outside bodies to be accurate, what more could you want? It’s not like you’d give a shit what a Syrian organization had to say, because they too are biased, and you can make a line for whatever group you fucking want. There is no such thing as being unbiased, but a history of theoretical enemies agreeing with your statement is a good indicator of accuracy, and this has that.
I’d prefer independent corroboration from nation that doesn’t benefit from either Israel or Hamas. As far as Syria goes, it would be great if they didn’t have relationship with Hamas, and I’d definitely look into what they have to say in that case. But as they do, I wouldn’t use Syria as a source.
Maybe once the fog of war clear up, I would consider the available sources on the war. But, as of now, I can’t honestly be confident about the numbers for now. I wasn’t confident about numbers given by Russia or Ukraine during the earlier stage of the war, but as more information pours up, it seems that Ukraine has a closer number and matches closer to finding of nations that are not Ukraine/Russia, so one can rely on Ukraine numbers.
So rather than take a side based on previously accurate death counts from this ministry in past Israeli military action, you choose to sit on the sidelines?
Useful idiots like you are how atrocities like this continue on.
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
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