Gaza Health Ministry
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Gaza Strip |
| Headquarters | Gaza city |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | Hamas Authority |
The Gaza Health Ministry is a government agency in the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territories.
History[edit]
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. But the director of the ministry stated that “the hospital managers weren't fired for political reasons: they were fired because of managerial, financial, and moral corruption in the hospitals.”[1]
The current director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry is Medhat Abbas.[2]
Reliability of casualty counts[edit]
| 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 was the sole official source of data on Palestinian casualties in Gaza during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war,[4] although these numbers are also published by the West Bank-based Palestinian health ministry, which confirms them with its Gaza-based staff.[5] Following heavily disputed initial casualty reports made in the immediate aftermath of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, the Ministry was subjected to accusations of inflating casualty figures.[6]
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.”[7] Yet, other sources argue that Gaza's Health Ministry also includes officials from the secular Fatah party and independents.[5]
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, without pointing any evidence,[6] later accused the Ministry of spreading “propaganda”, while US President Joe Biden stated he had "no confidence" in the casualty numbers being reported. [8][9]
In response to these accusations, commentators pointed out that Gaza Health Ministry'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.[10] [11][12] Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said that "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.[13]
Gaza Health Ministry has to carefully record all deaths so that it can give out death certificates, which are necessary for families to sort out inheritance issues and child custody issues (in case a parent had died).[14] This process is reportedly done not by political figures but by health professionals.[14]
List of ministers of health[edit]
 |
| # | Name | Party | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basem Naim[1] | Hamas | June 2007–January 2009 |
| 2 | Mufiz al-Makhalalati | Hamas | April 2009 – unknown |
| 3 | Medhat Abbas | Hamas | Unknown – present |
References[edit]
- ^ a b Merav, Sarig (3 November 2007). "Striking medics in Gaza temporarily return to work after talks with Hamas". National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ Daniel, Ari (13 October 2023). "Doctors in Gaza describe the war's devastating impact on health care — and civilians". NPR. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
- ^ "What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?". AP News.
- ^ David, Folkenflik. "News outlets backtrack on Gaza blast after relying on Hamas as key source". NPR.org. National Public Radio.
- ^ a b "EXPLAINER: What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?". ABC News.
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.
- ^ a b "Italian minister disputes death toll of Gaza hospital blast". Reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
- ^ Barnes, Joe. "Death tolls from Hamas-run health ministry are not trustworthy, former Reuters chief warns". Telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph UK. 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."
- ^ "Italian minister disputes death toll of Gaza hospital blast". Reuters.com. 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.com. 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.
- ^ "UN says Gaza Health Ministry death tolls in previous wars 'credible'". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- ^ Harb, Ali. "Gaza death toll from health ministry is 'reliable': Rights expert". Aljazeera.com. 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". 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.
- ^ a b "What Experts Say About the Palestinian Death Toll Figures". TIME. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2023.