In reponse to an article on Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from, Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture-recapture analysis, Zeina Jamaluddine, Hanan Abukmail, Sarah Aly, Oona M R Campbell, Francesco Checchi, January 18, 2025
Dear Editor,
Because the word medical is in the name Gaza Medical Services does not make it a reliable source of information. The Gaza Medical Services services Hamas not the citizens of Gaza because if it did, we would have heard condemnations about the manner in which Hamas fought the war, i.e. stationing its soldiers behind and among citizens to maximize casualties that it knew from previous experience naïve journals like Lanced would uncritically accept demonizing Israel on Hamas's behalf. But not a word form the GMS, and not a word from Lancet either.
Heres' an example of the grotesque inflation of casualties. Early on the war, a rocket claimed by the Gaza Medical Services to have been launched by Israel landed on a hospital killing 500 people. It was discovered that the rocket was not from Israel but an errant rocket launched by Islamic Jihad, and it didn't hit the hospital but the parking lot, whereas the death toll was reduced to 50. Note he GMS loves even numbers. But even 50 was an inflated number because reporters saw a few damaged cars but no sign of casualties. I'm not making this up, it was in all the newspapers and surely should have set off alarm bells at Lancet.
Apparently, Lancet is also unaware that Hamas combatant casualties are listed as children, medical staff when the Hamas operatives are killed in hospitals that they have taken over, or journalists. It's a bit of a joke among those who really know how many Hamas fatalities are listed as journalists.
Israel claims to have killed north of 20, 000 Hamas terrorists so you do the math on how deaths are apportioned in Gaza.
Another deliberate misstatement of fact emanating from the Gaza Medical Services are the casualties from misfired Hamas rockets that landed within Gaza that are listed as causalities from Israeli s bombs. Since close to 30% of all Hamas rockets misfired, you should again do the math rather than uncritically trust the new evidence you naively, perhaps maliciously presented to the world.
There is one other cynical misuse of death statistics, and that is the Gaza Medical Services includes people who died form natural causes in its war dead counts. No one, not even Lancet knows how many there are, but the misuse of the cause of death should of concern in Lancet's editorial offices.
Looking back, lancet has published a number of medical research reports demonizing Israel that have turned out to contain distortions and bogus information. In 2011 it was Israel's alleged mistreatment of Pregnant Palestinian women. In 2014, Lancet's editor Richard Horton called for Israel to be replaced by Palestine. In 2017 it was Israel deliberately withholding medical services from Palestinians .In 2021 it was the false accusation that Israel was improperly vaccinating Palestinians. In regards to vaccinations, I don't suppose Lancet would ever get it up to congratulate Israel for in 2024 assisting in the vaccination of over one million young people in Gaza. Apparently, Lancet subscribes to the philosophy that any sympathy shown to Jews is an insult to the Palestinians.
The result of the Lancet having been turned into an anti-Israel medical journal, while a PR triumph for the Palestinians, has had another less benign result, the increase in Jew hatred among the Ontario Canada medical community where Canadian Jewish doctors experience such intense antisemitism in their practices that many are contemplating moving. Sad for them and sad for Canada. Perhaps the use of false information resulting in widespread antisemitism resulting in stress related illnesses should become a research project at Lancet. I'm not holding my breath.
Larry Shapiro, Calgary
コメント