by Dr. Meir Seidler, senior lecturer in Jewish Philosophy in Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities, translated by Hillel Fendel.
A British research center reveals how the Ministry of Health in Gaza manipulates and falsifies data on Hamas and Gaza casualties – the very data on which the international community and the International Criminal Court in The Hague rely when condemning Israel.
Following the IDF's three-week long Operation Cast Lead military campaign
that began in December 2008, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza
reported that 1,300 Gazans had been killed, of which only 48 were Hamas
members. At the same time, an IDF report noted 1,166 Gazan deaths, including
709 Hamas terrorists.
Ultimately, the Hamas administration was forced to change its version and
admit that some 600 to 700 Hamas terrorists had been killed in the operation.
The correction was published at the time by the Haaretz newspaper, but did not
receive much attention in the press.
During the weekly violent Gazan protests between March 2018 and December
2019, known by Hamas as the Great March of Return, the Gazan MoH reported 55
protesters killed on one day in clashes with IDF forces at the border. This
figure was adopted in a report by OCHA (the UN's Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs), leading to a sharp condemnation of Israel by UN
Secretary-General Guterres and a demand from the head of OCHA to prosecute
those responsible for killing "innocent civilians." However, two days
later, Salah al-Bardawil, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, was
asked sharply by a PA journalist why Hamas sent civilians to die at the border.
Al-Bardawil answered that 50 of the 55 killed were actually Hamas fighters.
This admission that the official Gaza numbers were false changed nothing in the
UN's accusations against Israel.
These are just two examples cited in a report published a few days ago by a Middle
Eastern affairs think-tank operating under the auspices of the conservative British
research institute HJS (Henry Jackson Society).
But it's not the past that is the main point of the HJS report, which is
entitled: "Questionable Counting: Analyzing the Death Toll from the
Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza." It is rather the current war in
Gaza on which the report chiefly focuses. This comprehensive survey, the first
of its kind since the war broke out close to 15 months ago, relies on a very
large number of sources and research institutes, including the Washington-based
ISW (Institute for the Study of War). It presents and analyzes many statistics
and data, and provides conclusions. The report's data is verifiable by the
sources cited in the notes, and in fact, I randomly checked some of the
information and found that all of it was reliable.
I would like to note that behind the dry numbers of Gazans killed in the
current war stand, as in every war, some people who are in fact innocent, as
well as many children. Even after the atrocities that we so painfully
experienced on that infamous Oct. 7th, and even after the resulting
cheers of glee that we saw in Gaza, I personally am sorry for the death of
every Gazan who did not cheer, as well as for the children who died.
The primary feature of this report is the finding that the
Hamas-run MoH has "systematically inflated the death toll [among Gazans]
by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting
fatalities among women and children, and even including individuals who died
before the conflict began." This is no accident, but is rather the
official policy of Hamas, as evidenced by a document revealed as early as a
decade ago by the Hamas interior ministry. The instructions there were very
clear: 'Whoever was killed and became a shahid [holy martyr] will be counted as
a Gazan or Palestinian citizen… When describing those killed in Israeli attacks
against Gaza, do not forget to always add that they were 'innocent citizens.'
In conversations with friends from other countries, do not praise the [fallen]
military commanders regarding their military successes."
The overall picture is that Hamas is reporting nearly 40,000 total
deaths, while Israel states that of these, nearly half were Hamas terrorists.
(American intelligence sources say that Hamas deaths numbered only 12-14,000).
The lack of differentiation between terrorist deaths and civilian
deaths is particularly blatant given the fact that the official Hamas numbers
do specify how many men, women, and children were killed – even if not quite
accurately. For instance, among the women killed in one particular month, were
more than 100 whose names were given as Muhammed… Many of those originally
listed as aged 18 and above suddenly were counted as having been 17 years old –
thus increasing the number of dead "children."
An interesting anomaly that arises from the statistics is listed
on Dec. 5, 2023, when the MoH reported a total of 16,248 deaths in Gaza. Some
1,353 women and children were reported killed on one specific day – way more
than the total number of deaths that day, which was only 1,041.
The report notes the following brazen attempt to deceptively
increase the numbers of dead: More than 5,000 people who died natural deaths
during the course of the year of the war were counted as having been killed by
Israel! Concrete examples of Arabs felled by cancer are presented in the HJC
report as having been killed by Israel. So are Arabs killed in criminal murder
cases – and even those who were killed as a result of the commandeering of
humanitarian aid deliveries by Hamas.
And get this: Hundreds of Gazans were killed by the more than
1,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets that didn't quite reach their targets and
instead exploded inside Gaza – and they are counted as having been killed by
Israel! The report cites the famous case of the Al-Ahli Hospital that was hit
by a rocket. When the rocket was thought to have originated in Israel, Hamas
reported that 471 were killed, but when the truth was learned that it was a
mistakenly-fired Hamas rocket, the reported numbers went down considerably.
Fake Media Reporting
The report also examined some 1,400 English-language articles
written about the war for eight leading websites between February and May 2024.
It found that 98% of them relied on the Hamas MoH stats – and of these, 19% did
not even mention their source. Only 5% relied (also) on IDF numbers.
Fewer than 2% of the articles that used data from the MoH
indicated that the data was questionable and could not be verified. In
contrast, half of the articles that mentioned IDF-provided data noted that its
numbers were questionable. Only 16% of the articles noted that the MoH does not
distinguish between civilians and fighters.
It is hard to say that we were surprised by the report's findings, but for the rest of the world, such a report by a prestigious think-tank such as the HJC is of supreme importance. It is incumbent upon the State of Israel to use it proactively in its hasbara (PR) efforts around the world.