The mainstream media, activists, commentators, politicians, and even the president have cited the Gaza Health Ministry's bogus casualty numbers countless times. 

Any sane person would have figured out by now that using a Hamas front as a source for casualty numbers is simple malpractice, but then again accuracy has never been the point when reporting on the war in Gaza.

Well, the Gaza Health Ministry was just backed into a corner, and they have admitted that they may, perhaps, not have the data to back up all those scary numbers they have been pushing out. 

.@adesnik: "The sudden shifts in the ministry’s reporting methods suggest it is scrambling to prevent exposure of its shoddy work. For months, U.S. media have taken for granted that the ministry’s top-line figure for casualties was reliable enough to include in daily updates on… https://t.co/qwZQ1joizL

— FDD (@FDD) April 9, 2024

Their numbers aren't off by a tad, a titch, a bit, or a few. They are, in fact, off by about 30%. 

 on April 6 that it had “incomplete data” for 11,371 of the 33,091 Palestinian fatalities it claims to have documented. In a statistical report, the ministry notes that it considers an individual record to be incomplete if it is missing any of the following key data points: identity number, full name, date of birth, or date of death. The health ministry also released a report on April 3 that acknowledged the presence of incomplete data but did not define what it meant by “incomplete.” In that earlier report, the ministry acknowledged the incompleteness of 12,263 records. It is unclear why, after just three more days, the number fell to 11,371 — a decrease of more than 900 records.

Prior to its admissions of incomplete data, the health ministry asserted that the information in more than 15,000 fatality records had stemmed from “reliable media sources.” However, the ministry never identified the sources in question and Gaza has no independent media.

Half of all the deaths recorded come from "reliable media sources," and given that all Gaza media sources are tied to Hamas in some way that seems to be a rather thin reed to hold up these numbers. 

Now I have to assume that incomplete records does not in fact mean that all those people are living, breathing or walking around. I would have to assume that some people have died in the fighting, others haven't, and some were simply made up to pad the numbers. 

Nor do we know how many of the actual deaths are victims of Hamas--we have seen plenty of videos of Hamas fighters shooting at civilians or herding them into the line of fire. All we know is that the numbers are cooked, not the magnitude of the cooking. Given the photos coming out of the Strip, we have to assume that there are substantial numbers of casualties and that some of them are civilians. 

How many? Your guess is as good as mine, and that means not very good. Everybody talking has an axe to grind, and I am way too cynical to believe either side when it comes to casualty numbers. I love the Israelis, but in war, truth is the first casualty. We all saw the juking and jiving from our own government during the past 25 years. 

“The sudden shifts in the ministry’s reporting methods suggest it is scrambling to prevent exposure of its shoddy work. For months, U.S. media have taken for granted that the ministry’s top-line figure for casualties was reliable enough to include in daily updates on the war. Even President Biden has cited its numbers. Now we’re seeing that a third or more of the ministry’s data may be incomplete at best — and fictional at worst.” — David Adesnik, Senior Fellow and Director of Research

“It is important to recognize that Hamas is deeply invested in shaping the narrative that emerges from Gaza, particularly regarding the number of casualties in the war. Moreover, this control of data extends beyond the statistics provided by the Hamas-controlled health ministry, as there is also a deliberate effort to downplay the number of terrorists who have been killed by Israel in the war, potentially numbering more than 10,000.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

One thing you have to keep in mind when reading the news from the Gaza Strip is that any reporter embedded there is that they wouldn't be there without Hamas' sufferance, unless they went in with Israeli troops. Any reporter who was there before the war is, for all intents and purposes, a Hamas shill or even a member. Even reporters employed by outside media outlets have been known to participate in Hamas atrocities, and the Associated Press shared office space with Hamas for years. 

Shared office space. With Hamas. And they knew it, although they claimed otherwise. AP reporters even watched rockets launched from their street and failed to report on it. 

In every war, we are bombarded by propaganda, and nobody is 100% trustworthy. There may be good guys and bad guys in a war, but truthful guys are hard to find. 

But all the misinformation we see in our media leans one way: repeating Hamas lies. And being off by a third in the death total is a pretty big deal. Why didn't reporters look into this more carefully?

I doubt it was because they trusted Hamas. More likely they bend over backward to please Hamas because they are scared to do otherwise, or they outright sympathize with them. 

I'm sure it is a combination of both, leaning heavily toward the latter.