The Gaza Health Ministry is the government agency responsible for healthcare and medical services in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

of the

Palestinian territories The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The I ...

. It operates under the administration of the

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

authority that has run the territory since 2007. During the

2023 Israel–Hamas war } The ongoing armed conflict between Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups and Israel military forces began on 7 October 2023, 50 years after the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hamas's coordinated surprise offensive, codenamed "Al-Aqsa Fl ...

, concerns were raised regarding the accuracy of the ministry's casualty numbers. Groups such as the UN,

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

and the

US Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...

have historically considered the ministry's numbers reliable. However, the ministry's numbers do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and pin all deaths, whether from Israeli attacks or errant Palestinian rockets, on what the ministry terms "Israeli aggression".

History

The

(the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and the

) used to be served by a single government ministry of health. Following

Hamas' takeover of Gaza The Battle of Gaza, also referred to as Hamas's takeover of Gaza, was a military conflict between Fatah and Hamas, that took place in the Gaza Strip between June 10 and 15, 2007. It was a prominent event in the Fatah–Hamas conflict, centered o ...

in 2007, the

government in the Gaza Strip has appointed its own alternate health ministers than those in the West Bank. Following the 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, a month-long doctors' strike ensued due to political disputes. The new Gaza government, with

Basem Naim Basem Naim (born 1963) is a Palestinian physician and politician and a member of Hamas. Naim served as Minister of Youth and Sports in the Palestinian National Unity Government of March 2007. After the Battle of Gaza (2007), Battle of Gaza and the ...

as Health Minister, replaced

Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

-affiliated hospital directors and staff with Hamas loyalists. Jomaa Alsaqqa, a 20-year surgeon at

al-Shifa Hospital Al-Shifa Hospital ( ar, مستشفى الشفاء ''Mustashfa al-Shifa''), properly known as Dar Al-Shifa Hospital ( ar, مستشفى دار الشفاء ''Mustashfat dar al-Shifa'') is the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza S ...

, lost his job due to his Fatah support and faced arrests and assaults since the Hamas takeover. In response, Naim stated "the hospital managers weren't fired for political reasons: they were fired because of managerial, financial, and moral corruption in the hospitals." The current director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry is Medhat Abbas.

Casualty counts

During the

2023 Israel-Hamas war 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

, the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) was the sole official source for casualties in Gaza. Casualty numbers are also published by

Palestinian Ministry of Health The Health Minister of the State of Palestine ( Abbreviation: MOH) is Dr. Mai al-Kaila.

Reliability

Some sources have raised questions about the reliability of its casualty counts, while other sources have expressed strong confidence in its counts. Following heavily disputed initial casualty reports in the immediate aftermath of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion">Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion#Death toll">heavily disputed initial casualty reports in the immediate aftermath of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, the ministry was accused of inflating casualty figures. Gaza Health Ministry blamed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion on an Israeli airstike, and thus "deliberately told the world a false story," according to the ''New York Times.'' The ministry's casualty figures never differentiate between civilians and combatants, nor do they provide the cause of death. Thus, deaths from both Israeli attacks and errant Palestinian rocket strikes are both blamed on "Israeli aggression". The break down of civilian deaths is only calculated post-conflict by the UN and various rights groups. {, class="wikitable floatright" , + Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) death counts in select conflicts , - ! Conflict !! According to GHM !! According to the UN , - ,

Gaza War (2008–2009) The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead ( he, מִבְצָע עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה), also known in the Muslim world as the Gaza Massacre (), and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan () by Hamas, Secondary source, Abdul-H ...

, , 1,440, , 1,385 , - ,

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that h ...

, , 2,310, , 2,251 , - ,

2021 Israel–Palestine crisis A major outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot ...

, , 260 , , 256 Former

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

regional bureau chief Luke Baker said in October 2023 that the ministry's death tolls are no longer trustworthy and "any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences." Italian Foreign Minister

Antonio Tajani Antonio Tajani (; born 4 August 1953) is an Italian politician, journalist and former Italian Air Force officer, who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 22 October 2022. He served as President of the ...

, without citing specific evidence, accused the ministry of spreading "propaganda", while US President Joe Biden stated he had "no confidence" in the casualty numbers being reported. Subsequently the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

spokesperson John Kirby, asserted that the death toll cannot be taken "at face value", and that the "Gaza Ministry of Health is just a front for Hamas." Others point out that the ministry's numbers have historically been considered reliable by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

, and the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

. In addition, the ministry includes officials and medical professionals from the secular

faction and independent Palestinians. Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said "the numbers coming out of the ministry are not beyond reason", and noted a grey area in differentiating combatants from civilians among the dead, as well as emphasized that immediately released figures may often be different from those ultimately based on recorded data. Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh has asserted the process of issuing death certificates is not done by political figures, but by health professionals, insisting "this process enables families to deal with issues such as inheritance and custody of children whose parents have died." In response to questions during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, the ministry released a full list of the people allegedly killed at the time since October 7, a 200-page document with 6,747 identified individuals listing their names, ages, and ID number as well as 281 unidentified victims. On Nov 10, the

US Assistant Secretary of State Assistant Secretary of State (A/S) is a title used for many executive positions in the United States Department of State, ranking below the Under Secretary of State, under secretaries. A set of six assistant secretaries reporting to the Under Secret ...

said that actual death toll was most likely even higher than what the GHM reported.

List of ministers of health

{, class="wikitable" !# !Name !Party !Time in office , - bgcolor= , 1 ,

, June 2007–January 2009 , - bgcolor= , 2 , Mufiz al-Makhalalati ,

, April 2009 – unknown , - , 3 , Medhat Abbas ,

, Unknown – present

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.moh.gov.ps/
Health Ministry news feed (including casualty lists)
2007 establishments in the Palestinian territories Health Ministers of Palestine Health ministries Palestinian ministries