Palestinian health officials released a 212-page list identifying 6,747 people killed by Israeli attacks.
In a pointed riposte to U.S. President Joe Biden — who said he has “no confidence” in Gaza casualty figures provided by Hamas, Palestinian health officials on Thursday released a 212-page list identifying 6,747 people killed by Israeli air and artillery attacks on the besieged enclave since October 7.
The Gaza Health Ministry published the names, ages, genders, and civil identification numbers of 6,747 Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks, including 2,665 children. The list is in Arabic, with an English version said to be forthcoming.
Another 281 people, 248 of them children, could not be identified. In order to improve chances of identification should their children be dismembered by Israeli bombardment, some Gaza parents and guardians have taken to writing children’s names on their hands and legs.
All told, 7,028 Palestinians — including 2,913 children — have been killed in Gaza since Israel declared war in the wake of the Hamas-led infiltration attacks that left more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers dead on and after October 7.
More than 17,000 Palestinians have been injured in Israeli attacks, nearly half the homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and over 1.4 million people have been displaced.
Israeli soldiers and settlers have also killed more than 100 Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, while nearly 2,000 others have been wounded there. The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement that it was releasing the list “so that the world knows that behind every number is the story of a person whose name and identity are known.”
“Our people are not nobodies who can be ignored,” the agency stressed.
“At a time when our people are waiting for urgent international intervention to stop the genocidal war being carried out by the Israeli occupier against all civilian components including health and media personnel… more than 2 million people living in the Gaza Strip are exposed to the ugliest types of systematic killing and brutal massacres,” the statement continued.
The ministry accused the Biden administration of accepting all of the Israeli government’s claims “without any verification or scrutiny” and “devoid of all… morals and basic human rights values that it sings about.”
On Wednesday, Biden — who earlier this month declared his “rock-solid and unwavering” commitment to Israel — said during a White House press conference that he was “sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war.” “But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,” the president added.
Some critics condemned Biden’s stance as “genocide denial.” However, the administration doubled down on its claim as White House Spokesperson John Kirby said during a Thursday press briefing that “the Gaza Ministry of Health is just a front for Hamas.” “We can’t take anything coming out of Hamas, including the so-called Ministry of Health, at face value,” Kirby added.
Some observers noted that the Biden administration cited Gaza Ministry of Health casualty figures as recently as last year in a State Department human rights report.
IfNotNow, a Jewish-led U.S. peace group, called the Gaza victims list “catastrophic” and “devastating.”
“President Biden publicly undermining the Gaza death toll is dangerous and wrong,” the group said. “Questioning death tolls directly dehumanizes Palestinians. It’s a key part of genocide denial. Israel is murdering Palestinians. By minimizing this, the U.S. is laying the groundwork for more death.”
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times that the arguing over the number of dead in Gaza is akin to not seeing the forest for the trees. “As the debate focuses on death tolls, the bodies continue to pile up,” Shakir said. “Our focus should be on how to prevent further mass atrocities, instead of debating whether or not the number is exactly accurate or not.”
“We know that Palestinians are being killed in unprecedentedly high numbers,” he said, “and that needs to end.”
archive link: https://archive.ph/8pvFS
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
Nope: Refusing to play makes the result you like least more likely.
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We need to start building a third party in the United States. And don’t give me that “oh, they can’t win” bullshit, just start with local elections and move up from there. It’d take a couple of elections or so but it’d work and curb the genocidal bullshit once actual sane people are put in office.
Unfortunately it’s not bullshit, but a mathematical consequence of first past the post elections. Voting for a third party is equivalent to not voting in terms of getting your most hated major candidate into office.
The only way out is election reform.
We need a party, but playing voteball won’t be how we stop the American murder machine. It’ll be… other methods of political action.
Fair, but from a legal standpoint we need to try, too. Ceding control of the system to the enemy does nothing but benefit said enemy.
The party should participate in elections, but winning elections can not be the goal. Elections are a vehicle to get the party platform and message out, not a way to actually win power.
How would a third party win power, from your perspective?
Unite the disparate activists and unions into a single coordinated political party. From there begin educating as many people as possible in a unified political theory and independent guerilla tactics. Then launch a general strike and shut down the entire country. And be ready to die.
I’d be down for a general strike, honestly.
Don’t you think getting people from a third party elected into office would help support a general strike, though? They could ensure strikers get benefits and aren’t rendered homeless and such.
Voting for genocide makes me complicit.
I’d rather literally kill myself. In fact, I’d do more good if I doused myself in kerosene and lit myself on fire outside of the polling place. At least that way I get to vote for something besides genocide regular and genocide deluxe. My vote might actually matter if I do that.
Not voting is mathematically equivalent to a half vote for genocide deluxe.
So, yes, your (refusal to) vote does matter, in that it makes the situation a bit worse.
You’re right, I should actually just kill myself in front of a polling place. Self immolation as a form of protest has actually worked to topple evil governments, so if I actually wanted to do something about this I should buy a few gallons of kerosene. That’s a vote that matters.
It costs nothing to play and you might be able to avert the worst outcome.
I voted for Biden to stop fascism and now a genocide is happening. What was the fucking point?
As I said below, the only vote I could cast that would possibly matter is public suicide.
That genocide (it’s really more of an ethnic cleansing) has been going on for decades and Joe’s been pressuring Israel to tone it down. It’s not enough but there’s too much public support in the US for Israel. There would be serious political consequences for him and his party if he pushed for much more than that. Hell most of his party wouldn’t even support him if he went much further.
Also not having fascism is a pretty big deal in my book.
The public support for Israel comes from political leaders like Biden giving them unconditional support. He isn’t “pressuring” them because there’s absolutely no limit to his support for Israel. Pressure requires some threat of action against them and the US would never do anything like that.
Though you’re right that his Party would revolt if he actually tried applying real pressure on Israel (as opposed to pure rhetoric) but that’s just proof his Party also supports genocide.
And yes, it’s genocide. Look at the definition. “Ethnic cleansing” is just a euphemism that implies Palestinians are filth that need to be cleaned. Call genocide, genocide.
Democracy is about compromise. Only dictators get their way every time. Vote for the best realistic option and if you’re not satisfied with that then find additional ways to push for change. Protest, organize, make a podcast…
The rich get their way all the time.
What democracy?