GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 24 (Reuters) - More than 700 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes, Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday, the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began a bombing campaign to crush Hamas militants who stunned the country with a deadly Oct. 7 attack.
Israel said it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters in the overnight strikes on the besieged enclave but said its war to destroy the Islamist group would take time.
As aid agencies warned that a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding in Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron flew to Israel to offer it support.
There’s a reason that article notes that they “could not independently verify the ministry figures.” They aren’t independent or apolitical. The Ministry of Health aren’t frontline doctors and nurses, they are the Hamas-controlled bureaucracy that oversees them. Hamas long ago purged anyone from the ministry that wasn’t specifically loyal to them.
Why do you think Hamas would work so hard to purge the Palestinians in the Ministry who were neutral or Fatah-aligned? Is there a compelling reason to think an institution designed to serve a party or faction to the exclusion of everyone else would (or could) serve anyone else?
The reason is that they are neutral and no one is allowed to Gaza (thanks to Israel) to verify this.
Anyway again it’s Frontline doctors and nurses who report these numbers.
The reason is that they’re a problematic source. Everyone’s also being much more cautious since the al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast because several major news organizations had to apologize for uncritically reporting Hamas/MoH claims that turned out to be false.
I’m sure first responders report numbers to the ministry but you’re wrong to think that they’re reporting to you. The voice that speaks through the ministry is Hamas. You’re taking it purely on faith that it’s otherwise, but it ain’t true just because you’d like it to be. I’m not sure Hamas has really earned your faith. They’re being widely reported because, as you said, there’s no one else in a position to report. But best-we-have doesn’t really mean good, does it? And it shouldn’t mean that we stop evaluating them critically as a source.