How Many Palestinians Have Actually Died? Why Would We Trust Figures Handed Out by Hamas?

 We have often wondered when we hear or read the news out of Gaza, do we really trust ANYTHING that the Hamas Ministry of Health actually tells us?  I'm going to suggest that we really shouldn't.  But of course the media has a Leftist tilt to it so is prone to dislike Israel and happy to report the numbers delivered from Hamas concerning the death toll.

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health can't provide names of more than 10,000 of the 34,000 it says have died during the war with Israel, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies reports.

"While the Health Ministry conceded earlier this month that it has 'incomplete data' for nearly one-third of the deceased, this is the first admission that it lacks an essential data point necessary to establish these deaths have even taken place," the Washington-based think tank noted on May 2.

On April 24, the ministry released a graphic to mark the 200th day of the war that started when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, repeating its claim that the hostilities had claimed more than 34,000 Gazan lives. However, it added that only 24,000 of the dead are "martyrs whose identities are recognized."

As of April 21, 10,152 of the ministry's fatality records had incomplete data. "An explanatory note in the April 1 digest says incomplete records lack one or more of five basic data points: ID number, full name, sex, date of birth, or date of death," FDD reported.

While it was unclear which of those data points was missing, "it is now clear the ministry does not have names for these individuals," FDD said.

U.S. President Joe Biden has cited figures from the Gaza Health Ministry without identifying them as such.

"Before citing them again, he should ask the intelligence community to evaluate the data's sources and accuracy," FDD said. "Likewise, journalists should press the Gaza Health Ministry to explain the increasing number of inconsistencies in its reports."

Some have challenged the Hamas casualty figures.

Abraham Wyner, a professor of statistics and data science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in Tablet magazine in March, "The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work.

"The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters," he wrote.

Wyner noted that child casualties should track with women casualties. This has to do with the daily variation in strikes on residential buildings and tunnels.

"Consequently, on the days with many women casualties there should be large numbers of children casualties, and on the days when just a few women are reported to have been killed, just a few children should be reported," he wrote.

FDD noted in its report that economist Michael Spagat, who defended the ministry's methods, admitted that when looking only at the complete records, "then the percentage of women and children drops to 53.3%," as opposed to the 70% or more the ministry has often claimed.

Hamas began to retreat from that claim in April.

History also appears to be repeating itself as similar claims and fake news were published by the mainstream media after Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

It took the media nearly a month to recognize its sheer obviousness: Hamas lies.

Objective analysis of the available data reveals that rather than civilians making up the "vast majority" of Gaza deaths - as the media regularly reported - the proportion appears closer to half. Hundreds of dead civilians are hardly reason to celebrate, but a 1-to-1 civilian casualty ratio is remarkably low by the grim standards of war. Coalition efforts in Afghanistan, for example, produced a 3-to-1 ratio, and 4-to-1 in Iraq. Given Hamas tactics of firing rockets from densely populated civilian areas, the toll in Gaza could have been immeasurably higher.

Why, then, do the media continue to accept Hamas propaganda unchallenged? Partly because the death of any civilian - particularly children, who are half of Gaza's population - is heart-rending. Partly because the heat and fog of war make precise figures unknowable until well after the fighting. Partly because the narrative of a guerrilla militia confronting a modern military makes for compelling copy, and partly - perhaps mainly - because of Hamas intimidation and restrictions on the ground.

Hamas mendacity, however, is old news. During its first major clash with Israel in 2008-09, for example, the organization claimed that fewer than 50 of the dead had been combatants. Years later, it conceded that the total had been identical to that acknowledged by Israel: between 600 and 700.

It is therefore all the more extraordinary that journalists cast their usual skepticism to the winds and instead followed the script of an unrepentant, unreliable terror outfit.

Hamas has taken a beating in its latest battle with Israel, but so too has media credibility.

Here;  Propaganda Wars - Hamas Can't Find 10,000 Names Of Those It Claims Died (prophecynewswatch.com)

So if you find yourself in a debate with a Liberal and they say something like, "35,000 innocent men, women and children have been murdered by Israel since they invaded Gaza!"  Just calmly point out that Hamas is who started the war so of course Israel will kill Hamas military men hiding in schools and hospitals in Gaza.  It is a war so people will die.  Next say, "I don't believe that thousands of women and children have been killed by the IDF.  We can't trust anything Hamas tells us.  For all we know Hamas has been killing the Palestinians as they have done other times in the past."