The most dramatic news about Gaza today has been a UN agency calling into question the actual number of Palestinian dead, The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cut the often quoted numbers by nearly half, and cited the inconsistency of the Gaza Health Ministry as the reason. I have pointed out in the past that Hamas controls that source. This story is on all the media this morning. The idea that there was no independent verification casts a shadow of doubt over all reports emanating from Hamas controlled Gaza media (and it should). Go back to my earlier posts (if you can) and you’ll see a theme of mistrust for Hamas controlled stories throughout. Also worth mentioning is that the media giants all know that this is true and they regard it as just another cost of doing business in Gaza. I knew this from the days when I had an Israeli press card and heard “rumors” from reporters. I don’t have independent verification, either, but I am aware of how the press in Arab countries operates. I’ve probably mentioned that I even trusted Al Jazeera when they were not reporting about Qatar (or Gaza).
A less dramatic report from the UN says that 2 of their personnel were killed in Rafah. The probable cause is Hamas fire. Hamas STILL launches daily rockets against Israeli towns and the media STILL doesn’t report this. Do they have a policy of requiring a certain number of dead bodies before an event becomes news? The war in Ukraine has a similar problem because reports from the Russian side are similar to those from Hamas. War reporters have a difficult job. In the Gaza War most Hamas statements seem to be accepted at face value, while Israeli reports are often noted as being “alleged” or “not independently verified”.
Wetherhorn 