Gaza Health Ministry
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Gaza Strip |
| Headquarters | Gaza City |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | Hamas Authority |
The Gaza Health Ministry is the government agency responsible for healthcare and medical services in the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territories. It operates under the administration of the Hamas authority that has run the territory since 2007.
During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, concerns were raised regarding the accuracy of the ministry's casualty numbers.[1][2] Groups such as the UN, WHO, Human Rights Watch have historically considered the ministry's numbers reliable, the US however has doubted its reliability.[3] However, the ministry's casualty figures also do not distinguish the difference between civilians and combatants or provide the cause of death with deaths from both Israeli attacks and errant Palestinian rocket strikes being considered to be due to "Israeli aggression".
History
The Palestinian territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) used to be served by a single government ministry of health. Following Hamas' takeover of Gaza in 2007, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip has appointed its own alternate health ministers than those in the West Bank.
Following the 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, a month-long doctors' strike ensued due to political disputes. The new Gaza government, with Basem Naim as Health Minister, replaced Fatah-affiliated hospital directors and staff with Hamas loyalists. Jomaa Alsaqqa, a 20-year surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, lost his job due to his Fatah support and faced arrests and assaults since the Hamas takeover. In response, Naim stated "the hospital managers weren't fired for political reasons: they were fired because of managerial, financial, and moral corruption in the hospitals."[4]
The current director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry is Medhat Abbas.[5]
On November 17, amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in Palestine stated the Gaza Health Ministry had been "decimated", and Gaza's health sector had been "systematically destroyed".[6]
Casualty counts
| Conflict | According to GHM | According to the UN | Deviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaza War (2008–2009) | 1,440 | 1,385 | 4.0% |
| 2014 Gaza War | 2,310 | 2,251 | 2.6% |
| 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis | 260 | 256 | 1.6% |
As of 26 October 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) was the sole official source of data on Palestinian casualties in Gaza during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war,[8] although these numbers are also published by the West Bank-based Palestinian health ministry, which confirms them with its Gaza-based staff.[7] Some sources have raised questions about the reliability of its casualty counts, while other sources have expressed strong confidence in its counts.
Following heavily disputed initial casualty reports made in the immediate aftermath of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, the GHM was subjected to accusations of inflating casualty figures.[9] In addition during conflicts the GHM casualty figures also do not distinguish the difference between civilians and combatants or provide the cause of death with deaths from both Israeli attacks and errant Palestinian rocket strikes being considered to be due to Israeli aggression. Thus the percentage of civilian deaths is only calculated post-conflict by the UN and various rights groups.[10]
Former Reuters regional bureau chief Luke Baker said that the Ministry's death tolls are no longer trustworthy and "any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences."[11] Yet, other sources argue that GHM also includes officials from the secular Fatah party and independents.[12]
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, without citing specific evidence, later accused the GHM of spreading "propaganda",[9] while US President Joe Biden stated he had "no confidence" in the casualty numbers being reported.[13][14] Subsequently the National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, asserted that the death toll cannot be taken "at face value", and that the "Gaza Ministry of Health is just a front for Hamas."[15] On Nov 10, the US Assistant Secretary of State said that actual death toll was most likely even higher than what the GHM reported.[16]
In response to these accusations, the GHM released a full list of the people killed at the time since October 7, a 200-page document with 6,747 identified individuals listing their names, ages, and ID number as well as 281 unidentified victims. Commentators pointed out that GHM's numbers have historically been considered reliable by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch, and the United States Department of State.[17][18][19] Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said "the numbers coming out of the ministry are not beyond reason", and noted a grey area in differentiating combatants from civilians among the dead, as well as emphasized that immediately released figures may often be different from those ultimately based on recorded data.[20]
Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh has asserted the process of issuing death certificates is not done by political figures, but by health professionals, insisting "this process enables families to deal with issues such as inheritance and custody of children whose parents have died."[15]
Gaza Health Ministry blamed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion on an Israeli airstike, and thus "deliberately told the world a false story," according to the New York Times.[21]
On November 10 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 although US officials had growing confidence, they did not have enough information to confirm for sure.[22]
List of ministers of health
 |
| # | Name | Party | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basem Naim[4] | Hamas | June 2007–January 2009 |
| 2 | Mufiz al-Makhalalati[23] | Hamas | April 2009 – unknown |
| 3 | Medhat Abbas | Hamas | Unknown – present |
References
- ^ McGreal, Chris (27 October 2023). "Can we trust casualty figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
- ^ "Israel Gaza war: Hamas-run health ministry says Gaza death toll passes 10,000". BBC News. 6 November 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
- ^ Tétrault-Farber, Gabrielle (27 October 2023). "Despite Biden's doubts, humanitarian agencies consider Gaza toll reliable". Reuters. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
- ^ a b Merav, Sarig (3 November 2007). "Striking medics in Gaza temporarily return to work after talks with Hamas". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). National Institutes of Health. 335 (7626): 904–905. doi:10.1136/bmj.39384.458935.DB. PMC 2048866. PMID 17974666.
- ^ Daniel, Ari (13 October 2023). "Doctors in Gaza describe the war's devastating impact on health care — and civilians". NPR. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
- ^ Chotiner, Isaac (17 November 2023). "The Trauma of Gaza's Doctors". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
- ^ a b Isabel Debre (26 October 2023). "What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?". Associated Press.
- ^ David, Folkenflik. "News outlets backtrack on Gaza blast after relying on Hamas as key source". NPR.
- ^ a b "Italian minister disputes death toll of Gaza hospital blast". Reuters. 24 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
- ^ "What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?". AP News. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
- ^ Barnes, Joe. "Death tolls from Hamas-run health ministry are not trustworthy, former Reuters chief warns". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
Hamas has now been in charge of Gaza for 16 years. It has squeezed the life out of honesty and probity. Any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences. I'm not denying there are civilians being killed. At all, including many children. That's verifiable. What is not verifiable are the numbers that emerge throughout the day from Gaza of new death tolls — 700 killed in the last 24 hours, 500 killed in the Ahli hospital car park blast, 5,000 killed since October 8. Hamas has a clear propaganda incentive to inflate civilian casualties as much as possible. There was a time when the figures from the ministry could be relied upon. The doctors and administrators knew what they were doing.
- ^ Isabel Debre (26 October 2023). "What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?". Associated Press.
The ministry is a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party, officials say.... 'Hamas is one of the factions. Some of us are aligned with Fatah, some are independent,' said Ahmed al-Kahlot, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. 'More than anything, we are medical professionals.' The Ramallah ministry said it trusts casualty figures from partners in Gaza, and it takes longer to publish figures because it tries to confirm numbers with its own Gaza staff.
- ^ "Italian minister disputes death toll of Gaza hospital blast". Reuters. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
The Gaza health ministry has put the death toll at 471. An Israeli official has said the toll appeared to be 'several dozen'. A U.S. intelligence report estimated the number of those killed to be 'probably at the low end of the 100 to 300 spectrum'. 'We need to avoid the negative impact of propaganda. Because that missile, which was said to have caused 500 deaths – in reality it was around 50 people – and which inflamed Arab masses in big cities, was not however launched by Israel,' Tajani told the Sky TG24 news channel.
- ^ Dobkin, Rachel. "Biden Accuses Palestinians of Lying About Civilian Death Tolls". Newsweek. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
What they say to me is that I have no notion the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many are killed ... I'm sure innocents have been killed and it's the price of waging a war ... The Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they're focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel and it's against their interest when that doesn't happen but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.
- ^ a b "What Experts Say About the Palestinian Death Toll Figures". Time. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ "Gaza deaths likely 'higher than is being cited,' says senior US diplomat". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
- ^ "UN says Gaza Health Ministry death tolls in previous wars 'credible'". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- ^ Harb, Ali. "Gaza death toll from health ministry is 'reliable': Rights expert". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
Human Rights Watch has been working in the occupied Palestinian territories for three decades. We've covered rounds of escalations and hostilities, and we've always found the numbers from the Ministry of Health to be generally reliable.
- ^ Taylor, Adam (24 October 2023). "Why news outlets and the U.N. rely on Gaza's Health Ministry for death tolls". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ^ McGreal, Chris (26 October 2023). "Can we trust casualty figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry?". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
- ^ "Revisiting the Gaza Hospital Explosion". The New York Times. 3 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
- ^ U.S. Officials Have Growing Confidence in Death Toll Reports From Gaza By Nancy A. Youssef and Jared Malsin—Vivian Salama contributed to this article. Wall Street Journal Nov. 10, 2023 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-officials-have-growing-confidence-in-death-toll-reports-from-gaza-b3b5183a https://archive.today/PwjRS
- ^ "Hamas announces cabinet reshuffle in Gaza". Hürriyet Daily News. 2 September 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2023.