Hamas lied about 500 dying in al Ahli hospital blast and blaming the IDF. They didn’t even try to offer evidence.
even granting this, this seems like the obvious exception to the rule. as the commenter you’re replying to noted, the UN and WHO have generally supported (with a handful of discrepancies that are unsurprising given the circumstances) the Gaza Health Ministry’s death tolls. Israel’s counts have also not historically diverged strongly from the ones the Gaza Health Ministry gives. take the 2014 war where the Gaza Health Ministry said 2,310 killed, the UN HRC said 2,251 killed, and Israel said 2,125 killed. that’s only a 10% difference which, if we’re being honest, is not really much of one in the context of an armed conflict.
mostly, where the Ministry and Israel meaningfully differ is in who they consider civilians and on what bases–the Ministry claimed about 70% civilians killed in 2014, but Israel claimed 36%. and that’s a much harder question to parse out than whether or not the Gaza Health Ministry is lying about casualty numbers–which by all accounts we have it does not seem to be.
The numbers don’t matter to me now. It is obviously a disaster. The excuse of wanting to prevent another Oct 7 is disingenuous.
1 They can never eliminate Hamas
2 Oct 7 shouldn’t have happened in the first place if the government was competent and it is easy to stop in future by kicking Bibi out.
Kicking Bibi out is the only tricky part but still easier than eliminating Hamas.
