John Kirby: Gaza Health Ministry is a ‘front’ for Hamas
Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby takes questions on Hamas claims and the White House’s communications with Israeli counterparts.
In the wake of the Hamas-linked Gaza Health Ministry's false claims that an Israeli airstrike hit a hospital and killed 500 civilians, the Washington Post Tuesday tried to justify continuing to use the agency's figures.
Many news organizations that were quick to repeat Hamas’ claim that Israel was at fault for the hospital blast have since walked it back, including CNN and the New York Times; the latter admitted it relied "too heavily" on Hamas claims.
A Washington Post report, on the other hand, seemed to double down on using the Gaza Health Ministry, saying, "Many experts consider figures provided by the ministry reliable, given its access, sources and accuracy in past statements."
The Post article equated citing the Hamas-controlled organization with using the Israeli government's numbers, saying, "The Gaza Health Ministry releases updates on death tolls, which The Post cites. The Post also cites official Israeli figures for Israel’s death toll in the conflict."
A new Washington Post report defend itself citing numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry in its reporting despite the group being tied to Hamas and publishing disputed information. (1)BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Staff 2) ABBAS MOMANI / Contributor)
Reporter Adam Taylor quoted Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch Omar Shakir, who said, "Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable. In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time which there’s been some major discrepancy."
Trying to bolster his claims further, Shakir told The Post, "We know that a health ministry is going to base [death tolls] on assessments coming from hospitals, morgues, et cetera. They have an ability to collect that in a way that other sources not there can’t do."
Toward the end of the report, Taylor acknowledged the fact that the Gaza Health Ministry blamed "an Israeli strike for the deaths at the hospital," and noted both the U.S. and Israeli government denied the Israeli government committed the attack and disputed the numbers, but chalked it up to the fact that "Official accounts sometimes differ."
President Biden has disputed claims from the Gaza Health Ministry in public. On Wednesday, Biden said he had "no confidence" in the reported death toll from the group, which Taylor acknowledged in the report.
Split image of Hamas terrorists with civilian body bags. (Yousef Masoud/Majority World/Universal Images Group and Amir Levy/Getty Images)
When asked what the reported casualty numbers from Gaza say to him, Biden replied, "What they say to me is that I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it's a price of waging a war."
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby doubled down on Biden's comments the following day, telling reporters, "Well, we all know the Gaza Ministry of Health is just a front for Hamas, it's run by Hamas, a terrorist organization. I've said it myself up here, we can't take anything coming out of Hamas, including the so-called Ministry of Health, at face value."
He continued battling reporters, telling them the ministry's numbers are "just not reliable," and adding, "I don't need to tell you how to do your jobs, but if you're going to report casualty figures out of Gaza, I would frankly recommend you don't choose numbers put out by an organization that's run by a terrorist organization."
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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