Hospitals have been caught in the crossfire during the Israel-Hamas war — both literally and in the clashing narratives of the conflict.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The head of surgery at Gaza’s largest and most advanced hospital held up his phone Saturday to the hammering of gunfire and artillery shelling. “Listen,” said Dr. Marwan Abu Sada as fighting raged around Shifa Hospital.

    • SLaSZT
      8•2 years ago

      Sorry, what? Newborn babies can’t shoot a gun and can’t take care of themselves if their homes are bombed and their parents die. Not to mention that half of Gaza is already under 18 and probably won’t be having babies any time soon, given that hospitals are being targeted. What the fuck is wrong with you?

    • be_excellent_to_each_other
      6•2 years ago

      Even if we accept the casualty figures provided by Hamas (and I don’t)

      I don’t know why you wouldn’t, unless your justification is just your own bigotry.

      One snippet out of a lengthy article.

      Many experts consider figures provided by the ministry reliable, given its access, sources and accuracy in past statements.

      “Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time which there’s been some major discrepancy.”

      Shakir said Human Rights Watch would not use figures provided by parties with “a propensity to misrepresent information.”

      Why news outlets and the U.N. rely on Gaza’s Health Ministry for death tolls

      And another:

      Throughout four wars and numerous bloody skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, U.N. agencies have cited the Health Ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

      In the aftermath of war, the U.N. humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records.

      In all cases the U.N.’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza Health Ministry’s, with small discrepancies.

      — 2008 war: The ministry reported 1,440 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 1,385.

      — 2014 war: The ministry reported 2,310 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 2,251.

      — 2021 war: The ministry reported 260 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 256.

      What is Gaza’s Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war’s death toll?

    • NoneOfUrBusiness
      4•2 years ago

      Israel doesn’t wanna wipe out Gazans; that’s just unrealistic. However, a sizeable part of the Israeli government is very much fine with expelling them.

    • Phanatik
      3•2 years ago

      You do realise that the birth rates will slow down during the conflict, right? Who’s going to be having a baby when the nearest hospital is being shelled? Assuming of course that both parents even survive.

      That 50,000 per year won’t hold for this duration and I won’t be surprised if it shrinks to below 1,000 by the time Israel is finished.