Gaza is currently experiencing its longest communication blackout since the Israeli operation began in October.
Between October 7 and December 15, approximately 18,800 Palestinians have died, 70% of whom were women and children. The death toll includes over 300 health sector workers, 86 journalists, 135 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and around 35 civil defense crews. In addition, more than 51,100 people have been reportedly wounded, with many others unaccounted for.
The report further states that out of 36 hospitals in the enclave, only eight are partially functional. Occupancy rates in inpatient departments have surged to 206%, while intensive care units are operating at a staggering 250% capacity.
Have any of these numbers been verified by a third party agency? You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take anything Hamas says at face value.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers are trusted by the whole world, including organizations like UNICEF.
I think Israel themselves said that casualties were 61% civilian, and they count any male of “fighting age” as Hamas, so 70 sounds about right
Putting greater significance on women and children sounds primitive; all lives should be counted equally. But yes, all men are potentially hamasian by virtue of having the same body parts as hamas, thereby resembling hamas enough to be unworthy of living.
Children kinda makes sense. They’re less likely to be combatants and have more potential life ahead of them.
I haven’t heard anything from a third party, and no doubt hamas is exagerating to some degree, but whatever the actual numbers are, I wouldn’t think the current estimate of ~20,000 is far off. Israel is intentionally bombing civilians, so the estimated number sounds fairly reasonable to me.
Easier to confirm, is the proportion of women & children. About half the population of Palestine is children, and about half are women. So ~75% being women or children also fits.
Hamas isn’t exaggerating, because the Gaza Health Ministry isn’t Hamas except by virtue of Hamas being the government of Gaza. The whole world trusts and uses the GHM’s numbers, because they’re accurate. Also the real number is more than 19000, because there are people still buried under rubble or otherwise missing.
I don’t think those commenters really care, they’re just looking for reassurance for their apathy. Denial will save them from inconvenience.
Dude, I am this 🤏 close to being banned in another community for daring to say that the current event is a genocide of palestinians.
I’m not denying anything, let alone for the sake of convenience. I’m not apathetic. All I’m saying is, is that the current numbers are probably not completely accurate.
I also explicitly said that the current estimate is probably not far off.
The only way they’re not accurate is through underestimation. The official figures exclusively count verified recovered bodies. Unidentified bodies, those still under the rubble, and the dead who cannot be processed by the medical system are not counted. That same medical system that was utterly destroyed by Israel. All evidence points to the official figures being a gross underestimation. After taking all precautions and publishing only the most conservative, verifiable numbers with names backing each one, westerners claim based on propaganda alone that the casualty figures are an overestimation.
We don’t need to be parroting genocidal apologia from Joe Biden and the imperialist machine.
Wouldn’t it be great if Hamas popped up out of their hide-e-holes and fought the IDF? Imagine all the innocent people that wouldn’t get killed.
Yeah. Definitely place sole blame on hamas instead of the people intentionally bombing civilians.
Is that what I said? Weird, I didn’t realize it!
Ha. Bibi pays them too instigate conflict, not fight back. Or so I’ve heard (no I don’t have proof, not honestly would not be surprised).
First, you’re going to need some sort of evidence to back up this claim. Second, Hamas isn’t who is publishing these numbers.
It’s in their interest to exaggerate, and they are under the control of a terrorist organization.
My understanding is that the only people tracking & publishing the numbers is the Palestinian health ministry, which is under the control of Hamas. Everyone else is just saying “Gaza’s health ministry said X” and such.
That’s not evidence, that’s another claim. Please provide evidence.
You don’t understand the difference between evidence and a claim, so it’s no surprise that you don’t understand anything else that you said after those two words.
It’s not “Hamas” reporting these death tolls, it’s the Palestinian health authority, which has a proven track record at very accurate health records. The UN trusts them as a source and western academics have no issues accepting their numbers.
If anything casualties are under reported.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-have-died-gaza-war-how-will-counting-continue-2023-12-06/