House votes to ban State Department from citing death toll statistics from Gaza Health Ministry

The House on Thursday approved an amendment that prohibits the State Department from citing the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll statistics from the Israel-Hamas war, effectively halting discussion of war deaths if it is sanctioned.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 269-144 to approve the amendment to the State Department’s annual appropriations bill. A group of 62 Democrats joined all but two Republicans in voting for the measure.

The amendment was led by Representatives Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida), Josh Gottheimer (DN.J.), Joe Wilson (RS.C.), Mike Lawler (RN.Y.) and Carol Miller (RW.Va.).

The Gaza Ministry of Health has been cited by the State Department and news agencies for decades amid the conflict in Gaza. The daily death toll during the current conflict that began in October served as a primary source for understanding the impact of the war on Palestinians in the territory.

It is the only official entity that tracks data on deaths in Gaza, with its figures regularly cited by both the U.S. and Israeli authorities.

Just under 38,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict since October 7, according to its report. latest release. The agency also noted that the number is likely an underestimate, due to the lack of medical infrastructure in Gaza and those missing and trapped under the rubble.

The ministry’s daily death toll does not include underlying data and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

It periodically releases underlying death toll data. The most recent release, in late April, confirmed nearly 23,000 deaths with full names and identifying information.

An Associated Press analysis earlier this month found that the proportion of women and children who died in the conflict declined as the war progressed, from nearly two-thirds in October to about half in April.

The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the death toll recorded by the ministry, claiming that the agency is inflating the number for political reasons.

Last month, the World Health Organization stated that full confidence in the agency’s numbers.

“There is nothing wrong with the data, the global data (over 35,000) is still the same,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said last month. “The fact that we now have 25,000 people identified is a step forward.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), herself a Palestinian-American, reported the amendment in a plenary statement on Wednesday, calling the measure “genocide denial.”

Tlaib read the death toll and other information about the conflict from congressional records, noting that she intended to include a list of the names of people killed in the conflict.

“It’s important to warn everyone here: the list is very long and I can’t even send it because of the text limit,” she said. “This is how many were killed.”

The amendment will now be considered by the Senate as part of a larger State Department funding package.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story