Gaza can no longer count dead bodies: WSJ
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A Health Ministry spokesperson says they are depending on sources of information such as testimonies from martyrs' relatives, videos of the aftermath of strikes, and reports by media organizations.
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Palestinians carry the body of Omar Hamed during his funeral at the village of Beitin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Sunday, April 14, 2024 (AP)
The Wall Street Journal cited the Palestinian health authorities as saying that they no longer have the capacity to count all the dead bodies in Gaza, especially with hospitals, emergency services, and communications barely functioning.
Given the difficulty in gathering data, the numbers of the dead are becoming less accurate, with numbers almost always underreported, as thousands remain unaccounted for.
Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, said, “At the beginning we had systems, we had hospitals,” adding, “The Civil Defense teams were able to get people who were stuck under the rubble. Then the whole system collapsed.”
The Ministry is now depending on other sources of information, such as testimonies from martyrs' relatives, video of the aftermath of strikes, and reports by media organizations, Abbas stated.
The true picture of the human casualties due to "Israel's" ongoing genocide, accompanied by the total collapse of hospitals and rescue services, will take a long time to emerge.
Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, said of the numbers killed in Gaza as per local health authorities, “We think that, unfortunately, it is reliable. And I wouldn’t be surprised if in the end it is an underestimate."
It is worth mentioning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been constantly dismissing the Palestinian estimates, saying they're exaggerated and it's under Hamas’s political influence, therefore discrediting the sources.
However, what's even more worth mentioning is that back in November The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that their estimates of the number of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip resulting from the ongoing Israeli aggression are in line with the figures released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
This comes as the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in its daily report today that the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza on the 206th day due to the Israeli genocidal war ongoing since October 7 has now reached 34,488 and those injured 77,643.
Additionally, it confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces committed 3 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, killing 34 and injuring 68, in 24 hours only.
The Ministry stressed that thousands of victims are still under the rubble on the streets, as the occupation forces continue to deliberately prevent ambulances and civil defense crews from reaching them.
Earlier, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that 10 Palestinians were killed due to Israeli shelling on multiple residences to the east of Rafah city.
