Hamas Fakes Casualty Numbers, Report Says

The number of civilian casualties in Gaza provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has likely been fabricated, Tablet reported on March 6.

The ministry now claims more than 30,000 casualties, the majority of which are women and children. Based on this estimate, United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said last month that the number of Palestinian women and children killed since October 7 was “over 25,000.”

But these figures are not real, the report says.

Suspicious numbers: Between Oct. 26 and Nov. 10, 2023, the Health Ministry released daily figures that included a total number of casualties and a specific number of women and children. The report points out evidence in the numbers that demonstrates they are fabricated.

• The graph of the total number of daily deaths is almost exactly linear, with little to no variation, indicating it goes up by a set amount every day, rather than by amounts that correspond to the intensity of Israel’s attacks.
• The number of daily women casualties should be roughly the same as the number of children casualties; however, the numbers show almost no correlation.
• The number of daily men casualties would typically move with the number of women casualties; but in this case, there is an even stronger negative correlation, which “makes no sense at all,” the report says.
• On the three days when the men’s casualty count is near zero, suggesting an error, the women’s casualty count is suddenly the highest.

Taken together, “it is highly suggestive that a process unconnected or loosely connected to reality was used to report the numbers,” writes Tablet.

The Trumpet says: Hamas has been fabricating its own “truth” to claim Israel is the aggressor and Hamas is the victim. The Biden administration and much of the mainstream media have gone along with this narrative. In the January 2024 Trumpet issue, we wrote:

Hamas wants international media on its side to pressure Israel to stand down, so it isn’t surprising that it is making false claims. But the sheer scale of lying—and that the perpetrators have been able to get away with it in the minds of so many—is remarkable.

Learn more: Read “Truth and Lies About the Israel-Hamas War.”