As Israel incessantly bombards the Gaza Strip at a scale like never before, the death toll in the tiny Palestinian enclave has continued to rise — more than 10,000 people have died so far. With Gazan borders sealed by Israel, the only official source for casualties has been Gaza's Ministry of Health. Essentially an agency in the Hamas government, the ministry supervises health services in the enclave. Its estimates of casualties are cited by news organisations, human rights groups, and international governments and bodies, including the United Nations. Who controls the ministry? Gaza’s Hamas government controls the health ministry but it operates differently than its political and security agencies. The Palestinian Authority (PA), which ruled over the enclave before Hamas defeated it in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, retains power over health and education services in Gaza, according to the Associated Press. The PA currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has its own health ministry in Ramallah. However, it still provides medical equipment to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, pays salaries to the ministry’s employees and handles patient transfers from the blockaded enclave to Israeli hospitals. “Health Minister Mai al-Kaila in Ramallah oversees the parallel ministries, which receive the same data from hospitals. Her deputy is based in Gaza.” the AP reported. The health ministry in Gaza comprises a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party, which dominates the PA. How does the ministry calculate the death toll? Hospital administrators in Gaza told the AP that they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every dead body arriving at a morgue. This data is entered into a computerised system shared with the health ministry’s spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra, who then gives the information to the media and other organisations. Al-Qidra said he and his colleagues face disruptions due to spotty connectivity but they do double-check the numbers. The ministry also gets data from other sources such as the Palestinian Red Crescent. It releases casualty updates every few hours, providing the number of dead and wounded with a breakdown for men, women and minors. The ministry usually doesn’t give out the names, ages or locations of the victims. A notable exception was when on October 27, it released a 212-page report, listing every Palestinian killed in the war so far, including their names, ID numbers, ages and gender. It happened after the US raised doubts over the ministry’s figures. The government agency never distinguishes between civilians and combatants. It becomes clear only after the UN and rights groups investigate and militant groups give a tally of members killed. Is the ministry’s data reliable? According to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, the ministry’s figures are fairly accurate and it has not found major errors when it investigated Gazan casualties in the past. In the previous wars between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have reported death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers. (With inputs from AP)
