(IntegrityTimes.com) – Since the outset of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, the Gaza Health Ministry has continuously provided updates regarding the number of casualties in the Israel-Hamas war.
While it is well-known that Hamas controls the Gaza Health Ministry, nearly every single mainstream media news outlet has taken its death toll reporting at face value. President Biden has also cited statistics released from the terrorist-controlled ministry. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) reported on April 9 that the Gaza Health Ministry admitted to misreporting fatalities due to “incomplete data.”
The ministry’s death toll number of 33,091 appears to be around 30 percent off, as 11,371 alleged deaths did not have enough documentation to be considered complete. The ministry wrote in a report that data is incomplete if an individual’s identity number, date of birth, full name, or date of death is unknown. The ministry defended the inclusion of the fatalities because they came from “reliable media sources.” However, there is no media independent of Hamas in Gaza, and it is highly unlikely that it relied on data from news outlets on the ground with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
While some of those people are likely dead, as photographs and videos from the war have shown the after-effects of Israel’s retaliatory efforts, Hamas has made a “deliberate effort to downplay the number of terrorists who have been killed by Israel,” according to FDD Senior Research Analyst Joe Truzman. He noted that the number of terrorists killed could be over 10,000. Additionally, Hamas terrorists kill Palestinian civilians and frequently use them as human shields to prevent their own deaths. FDD Senior Research Fellow and Director of Research David Adesnik said that the ministry had shifted its methods of reporting to prevent being exposed for its poor work. While war reporting is often inaccurate and full of propaganda, the mainstream media has lent more credibility to the Gaza Health Ministry reporting than it has to the IDFs.
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