The Hamas Health Ministry on Thursday released a nominal list of about 7,000 Palestinians it said have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel, after Washington said it had “no confidence” in its tallies.
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The list of 6,747 names indicates the gender, age and identity of the number of people killed since Israel’s attacks on Palestinian territory began. The Hamas government says it is waiting to verify the identities of 281 more bodies.
The ministry stressed that it was publishing this list after the credibility of its reports was questioned by US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
When asked about the death toll in the conflict, the American president replied that he had “no confidence” in the figures provided by Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
“I am sure that innocent people were killed and that is the price of the war. But I have no confidence in the numbers used by the Palestinians,” he said.
“The American government has deviated from all ethical, humanitarian standards and basic human rights values to become the spokesman for the occupier (Israel, editor’s note) and boldly question the accuracy of the announced reports,” Hamas said. Ministry of Health, which therefore “decided to reveal the details and names to the whole world so that the truth can be known”.
The Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip are in retaliation for an attack of unprecedented magnitude carried out by Hamas commandos on Israeli territory on October 7, which authorities said killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians.