“Israel MUST open the borders and allow the United Nations to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities.”

“The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death,” Sanders (Vt.) said in a statement. “As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”

Israeli forces have killed more than 30,200 Palestinians in Gaza—most of them women and children—while wounding over 71,300 others and displacing around 90% of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people. Children are now starving to death, and experts say adults, especially elders and other vulnerable people, will soon follow absent urgent intervention.

  • DolphinMath@slrpnk.net
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    7 months ago

    The 25,000 number given Lloyd Austin wasn’t based on US intelligence.

    WASHINGTON, Feb 29 (Reuters)

    U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Thursday that more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, but the Pentagon later clarified that estimate, saying the figure came from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, not U.S. intelligence.

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Hamas-run is sure a weaselly way of implicating disinformation. Their numbers have been consistently confirmed to be very accurate and trustworthy. Which is probably why Israel keeps bombing all those hospitals; so the deaths will stop being tallied accurately.

      Do you prepend all information coming out of Israeli institutions with “Likud-run” or everything that comes from the US with “democrat run”?

      • DolphinMath@slrpnk.net
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        7 months ago

        It’s a factual and neutral statement. Hamas has been governing Gaza since they were elected in 2006. Any governmental officials in Gaza hold power because Hamas gave it to them. They are not, and could never be a neutral party.

        Statements about Israeli officials, intelligence, and the IDF are the same.

        In the US these same news outlets do refer to officials as Democratic or Republican frequently. Hell, they even talk about which judges were appointed by which president. Similar reporting happens with different government officials throughout Europe as well.

        • underisk@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          That man consciously chose to put the phrase “hamas-run” in there. What do you propose is the reasoning for doing so, if not to call into question the accuracy of the numbers through that association? It is absolutely not a neutral statement; context exists.

          I have never once seen the phrase “Likud-run” next to any of the statements, tallies, or intelligence from Israel that the media reprints without any fact-checking or investigation.

          • DolphinMath@slrpnk.net
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            7 months ago

            The author likely made the choice to include “Hamas-run” for factual accuracy and neutrality. Merely writing “Gaza health ministry”, would imply a neutral 3rd party. Any official in Gaza is appointed by Hamas and cannot be neutral. As such, it is fair to question the accuracy of the numbers provided.

            That said, while their numbers are not something I would take at face value, their death count is still the best one we have.

            • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              The Gaza Health ministry existed before 2006. It’s continuity is contingent upon the same personelle doing the grueling work day in and day out. The rank and file are first and foremost medical professionals.

              From the Wikipedia entry:

              On 10 November 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US intelligence community has growing confidence that death toll reports from the Gaza Health Ministry are roughly accurate. The article also reported that despite US officials had growing confidence, they did not have enough information to confirm for sure. On 6 December 2023, a comparative study published in The Lancet based on publicly available mortality reports stated there was no evidence of inflated mortality reporting from the Ministry The US Assistant Secretary of State said that actual death toll was most likely “even higher” than what the GHM reported. In January 2024, Israeli news magazine Mekomit reported that Israeli intelligence officials had concluded that Health Ministry casualty reports are generally reliable and are used in briefings to senior officials.

              So if more than vague conjectures, share it.

              • DolphinMath@slrpnk.net
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                7 months ago

                2 points.

                1. I don’t see any issues with the information presented in the Wikipedia section you linked.

                2. Leadership in the Gaza Health Ministry has definitely changed since Hamas took control, I doubt all the workers are the same either. That isn’t super important though, except in understanding that they aren’t a neutral party.

                • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  You don’t have any evidence that their numbers are a misrepresentation. You said:

                  it is fair to question the accuracy of the numbers provided.

                  Thier non-neutrality is a non-issue if they are providing accurate numbers. The only reason to include Hamas-run, then, is to cast a vague sense that something ain’t right.

                  How does their non-neutrality effect their numbers? Give me something concrete.

                  • DolphinMath@slrpnk.net
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                    7 months ago

                    Pulling from this NPR Article

                    The Hamas-run Gaza heath ministry has used “reliable media sources” for 13,000 of the 30,000 reported deaths. According to the “reliable media sources” 86% of those killed are women and children. However, hospital staff report that 58% of the 17,000 deaths they have recorded are women and children. That’s a pretty significant deviation.