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Gaza Health Ministry AI simulator
(@Gaza Health Ministry_simulator)
Hub AI
Gaza Health Ministry AI simulator
(@Gaza Health Ministry_simulator)
Gaza Health Ministry
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. 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. 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.
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.
A month-long doctors' strike ensued after Hamas' takeover of Gaza, due to political disputes. The new Gaza government, with Basem Naim as Health Minister, replaced Fatah-affiliated hospital directors and staff with those identifying with Hamas. Jomaa Alsaqqa, a 20-year surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, lost his job due to his Fatah support and faced arrests and assaults since the Hamas takeover. In response, Naim stated "the hospital managers weren't fired for political reasons: they were fired because of managerial, financial, and moral corruption in the hospitals." In 2023 officials said the ministry is a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party.
The current director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry is Medhat Abbas.
On 17 November 2023, amid the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in Palestine stated the Gaza Health Ministry had been "decimated", and Gaza's health sector had been "systematically destroyed".
As of 26 October 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) was the sole official source of data on Palestinian casualties in Gaza during the Gaza war, although these numbers are also published by the West Bank-based Palestinian health ministry, which confirms them with its Gaza-based staff. The health ministry's numbers have historically been considered reliable by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch. The United States Department of State cited its numbers in a public report in March 2023.
The casualty figures provided by the ministry do not distinguish the difference between civilians and combatants or provide the cause of death. The percentage of civilian deaths is only calculated post-conflict by the UN and various rights groups.
The sources for the GHM casualty data include death counts from hospitals, media reports (subsequently denied by the ministry) and a publicly available online form which allows families to record deaths.
Gaza Health Ministry
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. 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. 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.
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.
A month-long doctors' strike ensued after Hamas' takeover of Gaza, due to political disputes. The new Gaza government, with Basem Naim as Health Minister, replaced Fatah-affiliated hospital directors and staff with those identifying with Hamas. Jomaa Alsaqqa, a 20-year surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, lost his job due to his Fatah support and faced arrests and assaults since the Hamas takeover. In response, Naim stated "the hospital managers weren't fired for political reasons: they were fired because of managerial, financial, and moral corruption in the hospitals." In 2023 officials said the ministry is a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party.
The current director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry is Medhat Abbas.
On 17 November 2023, amid the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in Palestine stated the Gaza Health Ministry had been "decimated", and Gaza's health sector had been "systematically destroyed".
As of 26 October 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) was the sole official source of data on Palestinian casualties in Gaza during the Gaza war, although these numbers are also published by the West Bank-based Palestinian health ministry, which confirms them with its Gaza-based staff. The health ministry's numbers have historically been considered reliable by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch. The United States Department of State cited its numbers in a public report in March 2023.
The casualty figures provided by the ministry do not distinguish the difference between civilians and combatants or provide the cause of death. The percentage of civilian deaths is only calculated post-conflict by the UN and various rights groups.
The sources for the GHM casualty data include death counts from hospitals, media reports (subsequently denied by the ministry) and a publicly available online form which allows families to record deaths.