Gaza death toll tops 10,000 – and we can trust those numbers more than Israel’s
Have you noticed how the number of dead Palestinians in Gaza keeps climbing, while the Israeli figure has been static for weeks?
Doesn’t seem much like a war, does it? More like a slaughter.
The BBC has created a little infographic which I’m stealing:
So: nearly five times as many injured Palestinians as Israelis.
More than seven times as many killed Palestinians as Israelis.
Of that last number, more than 132 times as many killed Palestinian children as Israelis.
… and we can’t be sure that any of the Israeli figures are accurate.
See, they were saying 1,400 Israelis had been killed, back on October 23 – but we know from The Cradle (and Haaretz) that by then, the confirmed figure was 683.
… so, nearly 15 times as many killed Palestinians as Israelis.
… and with the number of Israeli child deaths confirmed by Haaretz standing at 16 on October 23, that’s a monstrous 256 times as many Palestinian children killed as Israelis.
It’s entirely possible that more actual Israeli deaths have been discovered since October 23, but since the official number hasn’t increased, it seems doubtful.
And with so few Israeli children killed, we still can’t believe the daft “beheaded babies” story put out by Israel in the first days after the October 7 attack.
If all of the above seems ghoulish to you, think how I feel about having to work it out and then type it.
But it was necessary, because people like – would you believe it? – US President Joe Biden are saying they don’t trust… the Palestinian figures.
So, let’s see what the BBC has to say about that:
World Health Organization spokesman Richard Brennan said last week he believed the figures were trustworthy, adding: “We’re confident that the information management systems that the ministry of health has put in place over the years stand up to analysis. The data over the years has been quite solid.”
Let’s go into it a bit further:
The ongoing death toll in Gaza is released by the enclave’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
The ministry says that when a death occurs as a result of an Israeli strike or attack, a hospital registers the details into a computer. The details logged include full name, age, ID number and sex.
This information is transferred daily from individual hospitals into a central computer system and compiled by the ministry. Once processed, the data is provided to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
The PCBS told the BBC the figures only cover those who have died in hospital – it does not account for those killed under buildings or who cannot be identified.
A specific cause of death is normally logged but this is currently not happening due to the extremely high numbers being processed, PCBS president Ola Awak-Shakshir told the BBC.
So: the Hamas method is thoroughly-described and approved by the WHO – and the number of actual deaths is in fact likely to be much higher. The Israeli figures are according to “Israeli authorities”.
And the Israel Defence Forces have said “any information provided by a terrorist organisation should be viewed with caution”.
It’s a good thing they didn’t clarify which side they thought were the terrorists.
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If the tragic events of October 7th had not transpired, it is likely that there would have been no fatalities in Gaza. The concept of proportionality appears to be selectively applied, with Israel often being the focus.
The problem with that is, the people of Gaza have been effectively imprisoned there for many years, with their very means of continued existence subject to the whims of a capricious neighbour. They have suffered insult upon insult, indignity upon indignity. Human nature being what it is, they were bound to make an attempt to break out at some point. And there does seem to have been a method to that madness. Have you read my articles speculating on why Hamas did what it did?
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,400 people aimed to disrupt a potential normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia sought by Riyadh.
Extremists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have continuously thwarted peace talks that would have resulted in a two-state solution. Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated for signing a peace treaty with Israel. Yitzhak Rabin, the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing extremist who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords.
And how would Hamas’ attack have disrupted peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel?
I’ve touched on this in the articles I mentioned.
It’s certainly a setback and possibly even a death kneel for those peace talks. There is a hegemonic rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the former increasing concerned about the growing influence of the latter in the Middle East. It’s well known that Hamas is a franchise of Iran, and we need to figure out to what extent Tehran was directly involved in the barbaric October 7th attacks on Israel. In September 2019, Iran attacked the oil installations of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company, in order to punish Saudi’s ally, the United States, for pulling out of a landmark nuclear treaty and re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, moves that have hit the Islamic Republic hard.
Hamas and Iran have not been on the best of terms lately. That’s why I speculated that the Hamas attack may have been an attempt to restore relations, possibly by forcing acts of solidarity from former allies including Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
And while I agree with your sentiment about the nature of the Hamas attack on October 7, I would be interested to know your opinion about the Israeli response that has killed more than 10,000 people, including more than 4,000 children.
While it may seem that you’re asking me to criticize Israel for the tragic loss of thousands of Palestinian lives, it’s important to consider the complex context. It’s widely reported that Hamas has been known to use civilians as human shields, which significantly complicates the situation. Furthermore, Hamas has extensive tunnel networks, some reaching depths of up to 80 metres, that could have been used to provide shelter for civilians. It’s also worth noting that billions of dollars in international aid intended for Gaza have been diverted by Hamas for the construction of these tunnels and the procurement of military weapons. This misuse of funds has undoubtedly contributed to the ongoing crisis.
The pretext for saying Hamas has been using civilians as human shields is that Hamas personnel live in Gaza. There is no evidence (to my knowledge) showing that any Hamas personnel are actually hiding behind civilians. I understand al-Shifa hospital – touted as standing over Hamas’s underground headquarters – was invaded by IDF forces who found nothing. Certainly it is being said that they found no tunnel network.
There is no reason to believe that any such tunnel network would have been large enough to shelter civilians – and if it was used that way, this would fuel the “human shield” claims.
And who is saying that money intended to aid Gaza was diverted by Hamas for tunnel construction and weapons procurement? The story I heard was that Hamas had been stripping local infrastructure, and that it receives funds from other anti-Israel organisations for its weapons, rather than using international aid money.