Today’s question is how the Gaza Health Ministry operates. This organization is as authoritative for progressives today as Anthony Fauci was during coronapanic.
We are informed by CNN that Gazans are starving. Maybe if they walk 10 miles they can get a few scraps, but probably they will be shot by Israeli “snipers” if they approach the feeding stations. We are informed by the New York Times and CNN that all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. We are informed that Gaza has no electricity or Internet. So a group of people (the “Ministry”) with no food, no building, and no Internet manages to work together all day every day and produce reliable statistics and press releases. Here’s a recent example from taxpayer-funded PBS… “Over 60,000 Palestinians have died in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry says”:
Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. … An additional 14 Palestinians were killed while attempting to access aid near the American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund site in central Gaza, according to local hospitals. … Gaza, which has teetered on the brink of famine for two years
A starving double-chinned woman and a starving man (gender assumed based on wearing of abaya/hijab or not) in a yellow shirt with an ample belly lead off in this August 21, 2025 video from the Guardian:
Underneath the video, the journalists quote the ministry that works without an intact building, food for its employees, or Internet yet gathers precise statistics:
On Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said eight more people had died of malnutrition and starvation, raising deaths from such causes to 289 people, including 115 children, since the war started.
From the Islamic Republic of Minneapolis, “Gaza Health Ministry says more than 63,000 Palestinians killed as Israel-Hamas war drags on” (Star Tribune, August 29, via AP):
Gaza Health Ministry says more than 63,000 Palestinians killed as Israel-Hamas war drags on.
But they don’t say where this ministry is located or where its press releases are to be found?
It’s also perplexing that a team with the resources to tabulate deaths to single digit accuracy occasionally appears to be unsure of the whereabouts of all the hostages.
And nobody seems to question this, just report any numbers as given. Maybe IDF should come up with its declare casualty # regularly, since it for sure surveys Gaza. Maybe IDF should move its media office close to Gaza and allow journos there and may be give them free shwarma and beer and threaten them under the table, copying effective Hamas media strategy.
A quick look on Google Maps showed a lot of craters in Gaza, not sure how up to date it is.
An interesting, possibly relevant, book I read during the pandemic was Mary Shelley’s “The Last Man”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man
Spoiler Alert
Set in our era, and written in 1826, a plague killed off most of mankind, then the few survivors formed tribes and started killing each other off, then it was down to Cain vs. Abel, Abel slew Cain in a stunning reversal, then wandered around Rome until he died with his feral dog. Sounds about right. Now I’m going fishing.
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“If we make not wearing a mask a crime, only criminals will not have masks.” — 21st century “Scientists”.