SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf testifies during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on November 8, 2023.
(Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Contradicting Biden, US Official Says Gaza Death Toll May Be 'Even Higher' Than Reported
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf also accused Hamas—but not Israel—of "genocide" and was confronted by CodePink activists, one of whom was arrested.
Nov 09, 2023
Contradicting her bosses in the Biden administration who have rejected official Palestinian casualty reports, a high-ranking U.S. State Department official on Wednesday said the death toll from Israel's war on Gaza may be "even higher" than reported—an assessment that came during a congressional hearing interrupted by peace activists.
"In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "We think they're very high, frankly, and it could be that they're even higher than are being cited. We'll know only after the guns fall silent."
"We take in sourcing from a variety of folks who are on the ground," she added. "I can't stipulate to one figure or another, it's very possible they're even higher than is being reported."
Leaf's remarks stood in stark contrast with those of President Joe Biden, who was accused of "genocide denial" last month after he expressed "no confidence" in Palestinian health officials' Gaza casualty reports—figures deemed reliable by United Nations agencies, human rights groups, and Israeli and international media.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken—who heads an agency that has often cited Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures—and other Biden administration officials have also cast aspersions upon Palestinian officials' reports, with National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby last month calling the ministry "just a front for Hamas."
The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that Israel's relentless asssault on Gaza by air, land, and sea has killed at least 10,812 people—including more than 4,400 children and 2,900 women—while wounding nearly 27,000 others and forcibly displacing around 70% of the strip's 2.3 million residents.
On Wednesday, Vedant Patel, the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson,
said during a press briefing that the U.S. government has "a rigorous process for evaluating whether something constitutes genocide, and we have not made that assessment in this case."
At least hundreds of jurists and other experts,
including one of Israel's leading Holocaust scholars, have accused Israeli forces of genocidal violence in Gaza.
Members of the women-led peace group CodePink confronted Leaf and Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Middle East Dana Stroul during Wednesday's hearing.
When Leaf and Stroul responded affirmatively to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul's (R-Texas) question of whether Hamas committed genocide by killing over 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers during an October 7 surprise attack on Israel, one CodePink activist shouted, "What about Israel?"
CodePink's Leslie Angeline—who is currently on a hunger strike for a Gaza cease-fire—yelled out, "It's a genocide!"
"It's slaughter! It's genocide! It's ethnic cleansing! That's the truth," Angeline shouted as she was forcibly removed from the chamber by a U.S. Capitol Police officer and arrested.
"Call it what it is! Call it by its name," she added. "You're slaughtering Gazans!"
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
joe bidenu.s. state departmentpalestinegazaisraeljohn kirbyantony blinkenu.s. house of representativescodepink
Contradicting her bosses in the Biden administration who have rejected official Palestinian casualty reports, a high-ranking U.S. State Department official on Wednesday said the death toll from Israel's war on Gaza may be "even higher" than reported—an assessment that came during a congressional hearing interrupted by peace activists.
"In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "We think they're very high, frankly, and it could be that they're even higher than are being cited. We'll know only after the guns fall silent."
"We take in sourcing from a variety of folks who are on the ground," she added. "I can't stipulate to one figure or another, it's very possible they're even higher than is being reported."
Leaf's remarks stood in stark contrast with those of President Joe Biden, who was accused of "genocide denial" last month after he expressed "no confidence" in Palestinian health officials' Gaza casualty reports—figures deemed reliable by United Nations agencies, human rights groups, and Israeli and international media.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken—who heads an agency that has often cited Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures—and other Biden administration officials have also cast aspersions upon Palestinian officials' reports, with National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby last month calling the ministry "just a front for Hamas."
The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that Israel's relentless asssault on Gaza by air, land, and sea has killed at least 10,812 people—including more than 4,400 children and 2,900 women—while wounding nearly 27,000 others and forcibly displacing around 70% of the strip's 2.3 million residents.
On Wednesday, Vedant Patel, the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson,
said during a press briefing that the U.S. government has "a rigorous process for evaluating whether something constitutes genocide, and we have not made that assessment in this case."
At least hundreds of jurists and other experts,
including one of Israel's leading Holocaust scholars, have accused Israeli forces of genocidal violence in Gaza.
Members of the women-led peace group CodePink confronted Leaf and Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Middle East Dana Stroul during Wednesday's hearing.
When Leaf and Stroul responded affirmatively to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul's (R-Texas) question of whether Hamas committed genocide by killing over 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers during an October 7 surprise attack on Israel, one CodePink activist shouted, "What about Israel?"
CodePink's Leslie Angeline—who is currently on a hunger strike for a Gaza cease-fire—yelled out, "It's a genocide!"
"It's slaughter! It's genocide! It's ethnic cleansing! That's the truth," Angeline shouted as she was forcibly removed from the chamber by a U.S. Capitol Police officer and arrested.
"Call it what it is! Call it by its name," she added. "You're slaughtering Gazans!"
From Your Site Articles
- 'This Must Stop Now': Aid Leaders Issue Joint Call for Cease-Fire as Gaza Death Toll Tops 10,000 ›
- Opinion | The Atlantic’s Sloppy Reporting on UN Gaza Statistics Jeopardizes Its Credibility | Common Dreams ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Contradicting her bosses in the Biden administration who have rejected official Palestinian casualty reports, a high-ranking U.S. State Department official on Wednesday said the death toll from Israel's war on Gaza may be "even higher" than reported—an assessment that came during a congressional hearing interrupted by peace activists.
"In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "We think they're very high, frankly, and it could be that they're even higher than are being cited. We'll know only after the guns fall silent."
"We take in sourcing from a variety of folks who are on the ground," she added. "I can't stipulate to one figure or another, it's very possible they're even higher than is being reported."
Leaf's remarks stood in stark contrast with those of President Joe Biden, who was accused of "genocide denial" last month after he expressed "no confidence" in Palestinian health officials' Gaza casualty reports—figures deemed reliable by United Nations agencies, human rights groups, and Israeli and international media.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken—who heads an agency that has often cited Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures—and other Biden administration officials have also cast aspersions upon Palestinian officials' reports, with National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby last month calling the ministry "just a front for Hamas."
The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that Israel's relentless asssault on Gaza by air, land, and sea has killed at least 10,812 people—including more than 4,400 children and 2,900 women—while wounding nearly 27,000 others and forcibly displacing around 70% of the strip's 2.3 million residents.
On Wednesday, Vedant Patel, the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson,
said during a press briefing that the U.S. government has "a rigorous process for evaluating whether something constitutes genocide, and we have not made that assessment in this case."
At least hundreds of jurists and other experts,
including one of Israel's leading Holocaust scholars, have accused Israeli forces of genocidal violence in Gaza.
Members of the women-led peace group CodePink confronted Leaf and Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Middle East Dana Stroul during Wednesday's hearing.
When Leaf and Stroul responded affirmatively to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul's (R-Texas) question of whether Hamas committed genocide by killing over 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers during an October 7 surprise attack on Israel, one CodePink activist shouted, "What about Israel?"
CodePink's Leslie Angeline—who is currently on a hunger strike for a Gaza cease-fire—yelled out, "It's a genocide!"
"It's slaughter! It's genocide! It's ethnic cleansing! That's the truth," Angeline shouted as she was forcibly removed from the chamber by a U.S. Capitol Police officer and arrested.
"Call it what it is! Call it by its name," she added. "You're slaughtering Gazans!"
From Your Site Articles
- 'This Must Stop Now': Aid Leaders Issue Joint Call for Cease-Fire as Gaza Death Toll Tops 10,000 ›
- Opinion | The Atlantic’s Sloppy Reporting on UN Gaza Statistics Jeopardizes Its Credibility | Common Dreams ›
Related Articles Around the Web
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.