President Joe Biden is casting doubt on death toll numbers provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which is providing public data about Palestinian war casualties in a territory that is closed to outside journalists.
The president’s comments Wednesday came in response to a question from @laurabarronlopez about the ongoing war between the Palestinian militant movement and Israel.
“In the 18 days since Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children,” she said. “You’ve previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties. Do these numbers say to you that he is ignoring that message?”
The president responded that he had “no notion that the Palestinians are” being truthful about the number of people killed.
Casualty numbers released by the Gaza Health Ministry have been cited by the U.S. State Department in the past. Casualty numbers in Israel are reported by the Israeli government.
Biden called on Israel to be “incredibly careful” to only target “the folks that are propagating this war against Israel.”
Tim McPhiliips, Travis Daub and Dan Cooney produced and edited this post.
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