2023-11-11 12:11:51
A senior Biden administration official declared Wednesday to Congress that the death toll in Gaza as a result of the Israeli military campaign might be “even higher than reported.”
Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, said the Palestinian death toll, while difficult to assess precisely, was “very high, frankly – and it might be even higher than what people say.
“We won’t know until the guns fall silent,” she said.
Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli bombardments left more than 11,078 people dead, including 4,506 children, 3,027 women and 678 elderly people, and 27,490 people injured, in addition to 2,700 missing under the rubble.
Ms. Leaf’s assessment runs counter to suggestions previously made by U.S. and Israeli officials, including President Biden himself, who have said that Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, might inflate the number of victims to gain sympathy from the international community and to create political pressure on Israel.
“I have no idea that the Palestinians are telling the truth regarding the number of people killed,” President Biden told reporters on October 25. While saying he was “certain that innocent people were killed,” he added: “I have no confidence in the numbers used by the Palestinians.”
The United Nations and international human rights and humanitarian organizations have relied on figures from Gaza’s health ministry in the current conflict, as well as in previous hostilities.
Human Rights Watch, which has conducted its own investigations into Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in the past, found death tolls that matched those of the ministry, the organization said in October. A UNICEF spokesperson also said the agency’s estimates of casualties closely matched those of the ministry in previous conflicts. The department’s statistics were considered credible enough for the U.S. State Department to cite them for previous conflicts in a report released this year.
Human rights groups and other international critics of Israel’s war once morest Hamas have said the violence is causing an unacceptable number of innocent civilian casualties.
Israel insists Hamas is to blame because it operates in civilian areas. Asked whether Hamas uses civilians as “human shields,” Ms. Leaf replied: “Absolutely, absolutely.”
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