Talk:Gaza Health Ministry

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Honest Reporting and Henry Jackson Society disproven claim

@Alaexis, you have now twice added a WP:FRINGE claim from WP:FRINGE sources that RS have said have produced misinformation about the death tolls by deliberately lying about them, the Henry Jackson Society and Honest Reporting. In your most recent addition you even went so for as to use the misinformation agent Brendan O'Neill's opinion piece in The Spectator as a source covering the Henry Jackson Society/Honest Reporting claim, which is not RS.

You are a longtime editor, and you have been involved in previous discussions we have had on this very page about the usage of the HJS and its spurious claims about the Ministry manipulating the death tolls, which again RS have said was deliberate misinformation. You also know that this claim also put forward by Israeli advocacy misinformation group Honest Reporting has received no considerable coverage whatsoever in RS, but rather has been disproven by RS.

Yet you have now twice decided to add this false and fringe content and present it as a legitimate view alongside the RS that disproved it. This violates WP:NPOV, WP:FALSEBALANCE, WP:DUE and WP:FRINGE.

Either obtain consensus for your proposed edit that you know very well is highly contentious, or stop adding it.

I oppose its inclusion for reasons mentioned. Raskolnikov.Rev (talk) 12:51, 11 June 2025 (UTC)

That's not how WP:RS works. What matters is that reliable sources like Sky News, Euronews or The Australian report on this. We shouldn't give this undue weight but we shouldn't ignore this altogether - this would violate WP:NPOV. Alaexis_¿question? 17:04, 11 June 2025 (UTC)

This is a typical example of different sources having different views on something. I don't think we can ever know with absolute certainly what was the motivation of those who updated the casualty lists. Therefore per WP:BALANCE we should assign[] weight to viewpoints in proportion to their prominence in reliable sources. Alaexis_¿question? 17:08, 11 June 2025 (UTC)

There are zero RS that have reported on this claim by the known disinformation spreaders on this very topic, the Henry Jackson Society and Honest Reporting, giving it any credence. The only RS reporting on it as per Sky is to say that it is false. This means that by definition this is a WP:FRINGE claim that is not WP:DUE for inclusion on the page. And why did you add a Spectator opinion piece that is not RS as your new source when you re-added the same fringe content in clear violation of Wiki rules? Raskolnikov.Rev (talk) 21:13, 11 June 2025 (UTC)

Sky didn't say that it's false, it said that some experts considered it unlikely to be the result of the manipulation.

Euronews have an entire article about it

The Australian also has an article about it . Alaexis_¿question? 14:43, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

The claim from Honest Reporting, an Israeli advocacy group with a track record of making false claims as was recently discussed in the RS board and for which there was consensus that it is clearly not RS especially for the Israel-Palestine conflict topic area, was that the Gaza Health Ministry had deliberately manipulated the figures. Sky's report in its own voice and citing the foremost expert on the subject of the Health Ministry and the death toll, Michael Spagat, says this claim is false.

You then chose to ignore that and found two outlets, Euronews which is linked to the Orban government in Hungary and is definitely not RS, and The Australian which is a Murdoch-owned outlet, both of which uncritically repeat Honest Reporting's claim and then also cite the prior report by the Henry Jackson Society that said the Ministry manipulated the figures which RS, including Spagat, have disproved. We now include that report on our misinformation page for that reason.

And now you are trying to convince us that you are not violating WP:NPOV, WP:FALSEBALANCE, WP:DUE and WP:FRINGE by seeking to add this to the page?

Also, again, you did not respond to why you cited Brendan O'Neil's The Spectator opinion article as your new source when you re-added this content. Did you not know that it is not RS? Raskolnikov.Rev (talk) 06:39, 14 June 2025 (UTC)

No comment on the content but WP:FRINGE applies to theories. The claim that RS have spread misinformation about Gaza death tolls is either true or false, it is implausible that it would be WP:FRINGE. WP:FRINGE applies to things like doubting anthropogenic climate change, or promoting homeopathic medicine, because these are making (quasi- or pseudo-) scientific claims against a scientific consensus. To take an example of something that's false but not WP:FRINGE, the infowars claim about crisis actors at mass shootings is false, and infowars is not a reliable source - but the relevant policy is not WP:FRINGE because it's not a "theory" that goes against accepted science or scholarship, it's a claim that goes against what all reliable sources say is factual.

As I said, no comment on the underlying content or the critiques based on other PaGs. Samuelshraga (talk) 07:55, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

Confusing Agency Overview

the Palestinian Ministry of Health in it's current form was established in 1994, with the de-facto control of Hamas in the Gaza Strip impacting the functioning of the MOH-Gaza since 2007.

Original:

Formed	2007; 19 years ago

Suggestion:

Founded	Following Oslo in1994
Reconfiguration	After political split since 2007

NomadicCurator (talk) 11:31, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

Edit request lead paragraph

Description of suggested change: Lead paragraph currently focusses unnecesarily on the casualty numbers, while the paragraph should provide a wider overview of the functioning of the MoH - Gaza.

Diff:

−

The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM), officially the Palestinian Ministry of Health – Gaza, is responsible for managing healthcare and medical services in the Gaza Strip. The health ministry's casualty reports have received significant attention during the course of the Gaza–Israel conflict. Its numbers have historically been considered reliable by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and Human Rights Watch.[1][2][3] In relation to the Gaza war, two letters published in The Lancet journal did not find evidence of inflation or fabrication of Palestinian casualty numbers.[4][5] A peer-reviewed analysis published by The Lancet in January 2025 concluded the GHM had undercounted deaths due to traumatic injury by 41% in its reports on the Gaza war, with the total estimated traumatic injury deaths as of October 2024 probably exceeding 70,000 as opposed to the GHM's reported 41,909—59.1% of them being women, children and the elderly.[6]

+

The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM), officially the Palestinian Ministry of Health – Gaza, is responsible for managing healthcare and medical services in the Gaza Strip. After the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Ministry of Health was formed building partly on previous Egyptian (in Gaza), Jordanian (in the WB) and Israeli infrastructure. Following the political fall-out between Fatah leadership and the Hamas-led government in 2006-2007, two parallel Palestinian governments have evolved in the Palestinian territories, though some bureaucratic institutions—particularly in health, civil registration, and education—maintained operational connections across the divide. Examples of this in the health care sector are the partial payment of civil servant salaries by the Ramallah-based PA, the unified management of World Bank-funded health care projects, and implementation of vaccination campaigns. In early 2023, there were 35 hospitals active in the Gaza Strip and a total of 3,026 beds available; 16 of them were managed by the Ministry of Health - Gaza. As of 31 October 2025, only 50% of these hospitals were partially functioning, as reported by the WHO and 94% of all health care facilities had experienced some level of damage. The health ministry's casualty reports have received significant attention during the course of the Gaza–Israel conflict. Its numbers have historically been considered reliable by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and Human Rights Watch.[1][2][3] In relation to the Gaza war, two letters published in The Lancet journal did not find evidence of inflation or fabrication of Palestinian casualty numbers.[4][5] A peer-reviewed analysis published by The Lancet in January 2025 concluded the GHM had undercounted deaths due to traumatic injury by 41% in its reports on the Gaza war, with the total estimated traumatic injury deaths as of October 2024 probably exceeding 70,000 as opposed to the GHM's reported 41,909—59.1% of them being women, children and the elderly.[6]

NomadicCurator (talk) 12:02, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

The lead of an aricle should summarize what is said in the article. I think this would better fit into the history section, once that is done a short summary could be added to the lead. A citation or two for verification would be needed to put it in there. A section just after the History section on current state could describe about all the destruction. NadVolum (talk) 13:51, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

Marking as answered, the above is good advice for a subsequent edit request. Umby 🌕🐶 (talk) 01:57, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 4 February 2026 Expansion

Description of suggested change:

Building on the previous discussion of expanding the history section, after approval a summary sentence can be added to the lead paragraph.

Diff:

−

The Palestinian territories are served by parallel ministries of health operating in Gaza and the West Bank, overseen by a single government ministry of health based in Ramallah. Following Hamas' takeover of Gaza in 2007, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip has appointed its own alternate health ministers, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) retains power over it, paying salaries and supplying it with medical equipment.[7][8]

+

After the signing of the Oslo Accords (1993-1995), the Palestinian Ministry of Health was formed building partly on previous Egyptian (in Gaza), Jordanian (in the WB) and Israeli infrastructure. Following the political fall-out between Fatah leadership and the Hamas-led government in 2006-2007, two parallel Palestinian governments have evolved in the Palestinian territories, though some bureaucratic institutions—particularly in health, civil registration, and education—maintained operational connections across the divide. Examples of this in the health care sector are the partial payment of civil servant salaries by the Ramallah-based PA, the unified management of World Bank-funded health care projects, and implementation of vaccination campaigns . The Hamas-alligned government in the Gaza Strip has exerted its influence over the Ministry of Health in Gaza through appointing a local minister of health in 2007 (Basem Naim) and then in 2012 (Mufiz al-Makhalalati), though currently its highest position is that of Deputy Ministry of Health, fulfilled by Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Rish. The current director-general is Medhat Abbas.

NomadicCurator (talk) 07:01, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before posting an edit request. Slomo666 (talk) 19:20, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Article structure, August 2026

Hello fellow Wikipedians! I believe this article's readability and future development will profit from restructuring the current content. Proposed new order:

Lead.

History.

Organization and administration.

Casualty reporting.

Methodology and verification.

Reception and analysis.

See also, References.

Feedback is very welcome, I will wait at least 2 weeks before further edits to this article. LumenArchivorum (talk) 11:02, 4 August 2026 (UTC)