After the US president questioned Hamas’ toll estimates, the group on Thursday published a list of nearly 7,000 names of Gazans it said had died in Israeli strikes.
According to the Palestinian Islamist group, since the attacks on October 7, which Israel claims claimed 1,400 lives, mostly of civilians, 7,028 individuals have died in Gaza.
The gender, age, and identity card number of every victim were disclosed in the 6,747 names on the Hamas list, which was made public by its health ministry. It stated that 281 bodies remained unidentified.
In a statement, the ministry claimed that the US had “brazenly cast doubt on the truth of the announced toll”.
“We have decided to announce the details of the names to the whole world so that the truth is known about the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against our people.”
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he had “no confidence” in the militant group’s death toll figures.
“What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden told a White House press conference.
However, Biden is one of numerous Western leaders who have warned Israel about the civilian casualty rate. Palestine “should be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that (are) propagating this war,” he stated.
until asked about the Hamas tolls on Thursday, Israeli military spokesperson Richard Hecht advised taking the numbers “with a pinch of salt” until they were released by the Hamas health ministry.
Throughout the battle, there have been numerous propaganda clashes between the two sides.
On October 17, after a missile struck close to a hospital in Gaza City, Hamas claimed hundreds of lives and blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel maintains that the incident was caused by a misaimed missile fired by a militant organization in Gaza. It has questioned the cost as well.
The United States and European countries have backed the Israeli version of events.
