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Death Tolls from Hamas-Run Health Ministry Are Not Trustworthy, Former Reuters Chief Warns
(Telegraph-UK) Joe Barnes - Hamas is likely inflating the daily death toll in Gaza and the media should be wary of treating its figures as reliable, said Luke Baker, a former Reuters bureau chief for the region. "Hamas has now been in charge of Gaza for 16 years. It has squeezed the life out of honesty and probity. Any health official stepping out of line and not giving the death tolls that Hamas wants reported to journalists risks serious consequences." "I'm not denying there are civilians being killed," Baker said. "What is not verifiable are the numbers that emerge throughout the day from Gaza of new death tolls - 700 killed in the last 24 hours, 500 killed in the Ahli hospital car park blast, 5,000 killed since October 8. Hamas has a clear propaganda incentive to inflate civilian casualties as much as possible." Instead of 500 people killed in the blast at the hospital caused by a misfiring rocket, between 50 and 70 people were killed in the explosion, according to one European intelligence agency.