I don’t really buy Ralph’s suggestion that it behooves Hamas to undercount the deaths. Rather, Palestinian authorities, including Hamas, probably feel like they have to be careful about their counts because credibility matters to their cause. The Israeli occupiers and their supporters will run with any perceived wolf crying.
In what possible world is Hamas this careful entity that’s concerned about their credibility and standing on the world stage
Along with Likud, Hamas is one of the primary entities ensuring the continuation of the decades-long slow genocide of the Palestinians. That’s why Likud has historically given them so much aid and support. They’re two peas in their own little murder-pact pod, and millions are starving or dead now as a result.
(Edit: My criticism of Hamas doesn’t mean I’m criticizing the effort the Gaza Health Ministry puts into getting good and accurate numbers. This article touches on at least a little bit of where the undercount in their figures might come from, despite how hard they’re trying to report accurate numbers. Among other things, it says that 30,000 is only the estimate of people directly killed by the IDF, not anyone who dies of starvation, disease, or injury. Maybe that’s part of the difference, or maybe Nader is simply throwing ballparked numbers around without nearly as much rigor as they put into it.)
In what possible world is Hamas this careful entity that’s concerned about their credibility and standing on the world stage
In this world.
It’s well-documented by NGOs and even the UN and WHO that the Gaza Health Ministry’s counts tend to be accurate, precisely because it behooves Hamas to be able to back up their accusations of Israeli killings with solid data. The data they release includes names, ID card numbers, sex, and age.
Hamas is one of the primary entities ensuring the continuation of the decades-long slow genocide of the Palestinians
“Nat Turner is one of the primary entities ensuring the continuation of the decades-long slow genocide of the slaves.”
Obviously this is not a perfect comparison, but I’d love to hear what exactly you think Hamas could do to end the Israeli murdering of Palestinians? Israel kidnaps, tortures, rapes, and murders Palestinians in the West Bank, and Hamas has no authority there.
That’s why Likud has historically given them so much aid and support.
No, Netanyahu has given Hamas support in order to prevent the Palestinian Authority from gaining power in Gaza in order to prevent a 2-state solution, not because Hamas would reject that, but because the international partners who Israel would claim to use to facilitate that process (like the US) refuse to work with Hamas. If Israel could get the US to label the PA a terrorist group, they’d be perfectly happy to let the PA run Gaza.
Hamas lied about 500 dying in al Ahli hospital blast and blaming the IDF. They didn’t even try to offer evidence.
There was public evidence to the contrary though.
Yet all mainstream media reported it for about a week before correcting themselves.
Hamas lied about 500 dying in al Ahli hospital blast and blaming the IDF. They didn’t even try to offer evidence.
even granting this, this seems like the obvious exception to the rule. as the commenter you’re replying to noted, the UN and WHO have generally supported (with a handful of discrepancies that are unsurprising given the circumstances) the Gaza Health Ministry’s death tolls. Israel’s counts have also not historically diverged strongly from the ones the Gaza Health Ministry gives. take the 2014 war where the Gaza Health Ministry said 2,310 killed, the UN HRC said 2,251 killed, and Israel said 2,125 killed. that’s only a 10% difference which, if we’re being honest, is not really much of one in the context of an armed conflict.
mostly, where the Ministry and Israel meaningfully differ is in who they consider civilians and on what bases–the Ministry claimed about 70% civilians killed in 2014, but Israel claimed 36%. and that’s a much harder question to parse out than whether or not the Gaza Health Ministry is lying about casualty numbers–which by all accounts we have it does not seem to be.
