🤥 How can we trust information from Gaza?

The numbers that the “Hamas-run” Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported as dead are likely grossly underestimated. The number of people still missing and presumed dead and buried under the rubble that is now Gaza are not included in any of the daily numbers reported.

The question of the accuracy of information coming out of Gaza exposes the extent to which the sanctity of Palestinian life has been dehumanized.The quibbling over the numbers killed by Israel has detracted from the fact that Palestinians have been killed, and in astronomical numbers. Women are writing the names and dates of birth of their children on their children’s legs and arms to ensure that if (or when) they die, their deaths will be acknowledged and registered.

As of February 14, 2024, the “Hamas-run” Ministry of Health in Gaza reported the number killed is 28,576 with at least 64,400 wounded. This number does not include the over 7,000 Palestinians reported missing and assumed dead, under the rubble. UN sources estimate 17,000 children have been orphaned. Let’s say these numbers are inaccurate. Let’s cut all the numbers by half. Let’s cut them by two-thirds. The number of civilians killed, injured, missing and orphaned remain outrageous, heinous, and frankly, evidence of genocidal intent.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza has a very reliable track record in reporting casualties in conflicts. Their estimates are corroborated by international organizations, and are used by the U.S. State Department, in addition to being affirmed by eyewitness accounts and video footage being disseminated from Gaza. The more pertinent question is can we trust the information coming from Israel?

The numbers being provided from Gaza are coming from experienced health officials. In past conflicts their numbers and statistics have been proven to be reliable and accurate when cross checked and have for that reason been used by the UN and by other international organizations.

The information coming from local Palestinian journalists in and eyewitness accounts from Gaza are accurate, genuine and harrowing. So much so that Israel has deliberately tried to obfuscate its crimes by targeting local journalists, and denying Western media access to Gaza, except when embedded with the IOF.

It’s interesting how information from Gaza specifically and the Arab world at large is viewed with such distrust, when historically it has been information from the west – most notably the U.S. and Israel – that has proven to be unreliable. There was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and most of Israel’s heinous allegations since October 7 – from beheaded babies, to the civilian toll, to who is responsible for Israeli deaths – have widely and definitively been debunked, but no one second guesses their information.