RSS
International Wire Service Gets Caught Falsely Casting Hamas Casualty Figures as Independent UN Data
Members of the United Nations Security Council meet on the day of a vote on a Gaza resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a permanent ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, March 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
After CAMERA’s insistence on factual accuracy prompted Agence France Presse (AFP) to abandon its longstanding falsehood that according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, most of the Gaza Strip fatalities in the Israel-Hamas war are civilians, the AFP has turned to an ostensibly independent source: the United Nations.
Thus, a recent AFP story, like many before it, reported the following (“Israel’s Gantz says military focus needs to shift to Lebanon“):
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40,972 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provides a weekly report called “Reported impact snapshot | Gaza Strip,” which cites several data points including fatality figures, with breakdowns detailing men, women, children and elderly.
As of this writing, the most current report is from Sept. 4.
But here’s the rub: By its own acknowledgment, OCHA does not research and collect its own numbers for the casualty totals or for the demographic breakdown.
The UN body simply regurgitates data supplied by Hamas’ Ministry of Health. See the graphic from OCHA’s Sept. 4 report with sourcing to “MoH Gaza,” meaning the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Indeed, a disclaimer at the top of the report explicitly states:
Disclaimer: Figures that are yet-to-be verified by the UN are attributed to their source. Casualty numbers have been provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Israeli authorities. The fatality breakdowns currently cited are those that the MoH in Gaza has fully identified as of 1 August out of the higher number of casualties they report. The latest casuality [sic] updates are also available on the Health Cluster’s Unified Dashboard.
Thus, AFP’s farcical attribution of the information to the United Nations falsely distances the figures from Hamas and disguises them as originating from an independent, third-party source, ostensibly bestowing on them greater credibility.
One of AFP’s leading competitors, the Associated Press, has acknowledged the credibility problems with Hamas’ casualty numbers, reporting:
AP’s examination of the reports found flaws in the Palestinian record keeping. As Gaza’s hospital system collapsed in December and January, the ministry began relying on hard-to-verify “media reports” to register new deaths. Its March report included 531 individuals who were counted twice, and many deaths were self-reported by families, instead of health officials.
As for AFP’s claim that “most of the dead are women and children,” even according to the “UN” numbers — which readers now understand are actually from Hamas’ Ministry of Health — women (5,956) and children (10,627) constitute 51.3 percent of the total identified 32,280 fatalities, meaning those recorded by hospitals.
“Most” could mean 51.3 percent; but it could also mean 65 percent or 93 percent. Presumably, “most” readers would not understand from AFP’s reporting that even according to Hamas’ suspect and widely-disputed numbers, women and children (a category which easily includes no shortage of combatants of the age 17, 16 or even younger) only just exceeds 5o percent of the identified fatalities.
Relatedly, in May, OCHA halved the number of identified women and children it said were killed, reflecting a discrepancy in Hamas’ murky figures published by its Government Media Office versus the smaller number identified by its Ministry of Health.
As The Times of Israel detailed last May (“UN cuts by more than half the number of women, children ‘identified’ as killed in Gaza“):
In a dramatic development, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has sharply revised downward the number of “identified” female and child fatalities in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The data now differentiates between the total number of deaths reported by Hamas (over 34,000) and the number of “identified” fatalities (over 24,000).
The new figures reported by OCHA reduce by more than half the number of women and children that it previously said had been killed during the war, though other “unregistered” deaths may be pending.
“Unregistered” deaths refers not to unidentified bodies held by hospitals, but mostly to more vague figures reported by Hamas as coming from “reliable media sources.”
All numbers continue to be based on reporting from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, and not on independent data.
Precisely herein lies AFP’s latest fib about Gaza’s fatalities: falsely passing off Hamas data as independent United Nations data.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.
The post International Wire Service Gets Caught Falsely Casting Hamas Casualty Figures as Independent UN Data first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Netflix Premieres Adult Animated Comedy Series About Jewish Family
A scene from “Long Story Short.” Photo: Screenshot
Netflix premiered on Friday an adult animated comedy series from “BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg that follows a Jewish family over the course of several decades.
“Long Story Short” revolves around Naomi Schwartz (Lisa Edelstein), Elliot Cooper (Paul Reiser), and their three children – Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield). The series jumps between time, and viewers follow the Schwooper siblings “from childhood to adulthood and back again, chronicling their triumphs, disappointments, joys, and compromises,” according to a synopsis provided by Netflix.
The extended cast includes Nicole Byer as Shira’s partner and Angelique Cabral. Dave Franco and Michaela Dietz are recurring guest stars. The first episode starts in 1996 and focuses on Avi bringing his girlfriend home to meet his family the same weekend as Yoshi’s bar mitzvah celebration. The episode also addresses Jewish-related topics such as the laws of kosher and the Holocaust.
“I think the show in some ways is about Jewish joy, and I think a lot of Jews will enjoy having a place for the Jews, and I think a lot of antisemites might learn a thing or two,” Bob-Waksberg told Variety on Monday at the show’s premiere at the Tudum Theater in Hollywood, California.
“Long Story Short” – which is Bob-Waksberg’s fourth animated show (“BoJack Horseman,” “Undone,” and “Tuca & Bertie”) and his third with Netflix – was renewed for a second season ahead of its season one premiere. The showrunner told The Hollywood Reporter that “Long Story Short” is “absolutely the most explicitly Jewish thing by a wide margin.”
The show is already facing antisemitic criticism.
“We’ve never not had antisemitism,” he told Variety. “The harassment is already there. I don’t think there’s a Jew in Hollywood, a public, a visible person that doesn’t get constantly harassed on Instagram all day long. An article came out this morning, it was a profile of the show, and I stupidly skimmed the first few comments and they were all … just nothing I want to repeat. But it’s just a buzzkill.”
“People are going to want to talk about the greater global geopolitical issues that are happening around this show, but this show is not about that,” he added.
“Long Story Short” is also from “Samurai Jack” creator Genndy Tartakovsky and “Rick and Morty” writer Matt Roller. Bob-Waksberg is an executive producer alongside Noel Bright and Steven A. Cohen. Corey Campodonico and Alex Bulkley are co-executive producers.
Watch the trailer for “Long Story Short” below.
RSS
Iran, European Powers Agree to Resume Nuclear, Sanctions Talks Next Week
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his French, British, and German counterparts agreed on Friday to resume talks next week on nuclear and sanctions issues, Iranian state media reported.
The three major European powers have threatened to re-activate United Nations sanctions on Iran under a “snapback” mechanism if Tehran does not return to negotiations on a deal to curb its disputed uranium enrichment program.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul confirmed talks next week and warned Iran that sanctions would snap back into effect unless it reached a verifiable and durable deal to defuse concerns about its nuclear ambitions. He reiterated that time was very short and Iran needed to engage substantively.
Iranian state media said Araqchi and the British, French, and German foreign ministers agreed during a phone call for deputy foreign ministers to continue the talks on Tuesday.
During the call, Araqchi “emphasized the legal and moral incompetence of these countries to resort to the [snapback] mechanism, and warned of the consequences of such an action,” Iranian media reported.
The European trio, along with the US, contend that Iran is using the nuclear energy program to potentially develop weapons capability in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran says it seeks only civilian nuclear power.
The Islamic Republic suspended nuclear negotiations with the United States, which were aimed at curbing its accelerating enrichment program, after the US and Israel bombed its nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June.
Since then, inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, have been unable to access Iran‘s nuclear installations, despite IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stating that inspections remain essential.
Iran and the three European powers last convened in Geneva on June 20, while the war was still raging, and there were few signs of progress.
Iran‘s state broadcaster said an Iranian delegation was due to travel to Vienna on Friday to meet with IAEA officials. It gave no further details.
RSS
German Government Calls Recognition of Palestinian State ‘Counterproductive’
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister in Turku, Finland, on May 27, 2025. Photo: Lehtikuva/Roni Rekomaa via REUTERS
A German government spokesman said on Friday that Berlin has no current plans to recognize a Palestinian state because that would undermine any efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution with Israel.
“A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today … The recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process, and such decisions would now be rather counterproductive,” the spokesperson said during a press conference.
Countries including Australia, United Kingdom, France, and Canada have recently said they would recognize a Palestinian state under different conditions.
Israel has responded that such recognition would be a “reward” for terrorism following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel. During the ensuing war in Gaza, Hamas has embedded its weapons and military operation centers among civilian sites, a strategy that critics have decried as employing the use of “human shields” against Israel.