By Jake Johnson
Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Sunday released a document containing the names and ages of Palestinians killed by Israel’s assault since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, an incomplete list that nonetheless runs 649 pages—the first 14 of which are filled with the names of babies.
The list, published to the health ministry’s Telegram account, is limited to those for whom Gaza officials had information—over 34,000 people—and the count stops on August 31. The current death toll, according to the ministry, is close to 42,000, but experts believe that figure is likely a gross undercount.
The new document is a testament to the devastating impact Israel’s U.S.-backed war has had on Gaza’s population, particularly children. According to Gaza officials, children make up a third of those killed since October 7.
“This is a genocide of children. 14 pages of babies. Babies,” Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, wrote on social media in response to the list. “This is nothing short of an attempt to expunge a people.”
[https://twitter.com/sharifkouddous/status/1835292186818056667]
The Gaza Health Ministry’s statistics are considered credible by independent watchdogs and have been cited internally by U.S. officials, notwithstanding President Joe Biden’s public questioning of the data. In June, the U.S. House approved an amendment that would bar the State Department from using statistics from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH).
But after examining an earlier list of names published by the ministry, the research group Airwars found “a high correlation between the official MoH data and what Palestinian civilians reported online.” The group acknowledged that gathering data has become increasingly difficult “as Gaza’s health infrastructure has been decimated by the war.”
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote that the newly published list highlights “what differentiates Gaza.”
“It’s a genocide of children since their proportion is unprecedented,” Parsi wrote, adding that the “U.S., U.K., and Germany arm and support the genocide.”
Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
16 September 2024
Source: countercurrents.org