I want to qualify this with - we know what israel and the idf are doing is terribly wrong, and under no stretch of the imagination, can their actions be justified.

So, now that that's clear - the palestinian health authority is directly controlled by HAMAS, and aljazeera is biased in the conflict, due to their relation and ownership.

We cannot trust any information and media reports coming from any source, doing so is a fools errend, and every argument follows this same cycle of futility for this reason.

What we can do, is call for an immediate cease fire and somehow band together internationally to demand an independent tribunal investigate. It may sound like a pipe-dream, but given the reality of this situation, it's quite literally the only way...

[–] livus@kbin.social 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

@drktrts historically, death counts coming out of Gaza have turned out to be fairly accurate. Ockham's Razor would suggest this is likely to be no different in that respect.

This is why humanitarian organizations are using these stats, as Reuters reports.

[–] drktrts@lemmy.ca -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

that's not the point. there have been several major incidents that have proven information in general (on both sides) have been inconsistent. That's why I suggest (since we all unanimously agree) this needs to stop and a cease-fire needs to happen asap, so we can begin the process of truly undersrabding the reality.

The UN is not unbiased or immune to misunderstanding in their reports, nor is reuters, or any other source at this point in time. We've seen this truth on several occasions. When there's two vasty opposed ans biased ministries providing pretty much the only sources of information, it's just bad practice to come to any solid conclusions. Where else in your life would you do this?

[–] livus@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

@drktrts first of all I totally agree with you that there should be a ceasefire.

But, in my life I use provisional, best guess estimates based on past experience on a pretty regular basis. Everyone does.

The reasoning from Human Rights Watch is worth quoting at length:

“We have been monitoring human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip for three decades, including several rounds of hostilities. We’ve generally found the data that comes out of the ministry of health to be reliable,” he said.

“When we have done our own independent investigations around particular strikes, and we’ve compared those figures against those from the health ministry, there haven’t been major deviations.

“Their numbers generally are consistent with what we’re seeing on the ground in recent days. There have been hundreds of airstrikes per day in one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

“We’ve looked at satellite imagery. We’ve seen the number of buildings, and the numbers that are coming out are in line with what we would expect with what we’re seeing on the ground. So you put all those things together and we’re quite confident in the overall casualty numbers.”

Source.

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