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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 22 november 2023

Gaza health officials say they lost the ability to count dead as

Israeli offensive intensifies

By ISABEL DEBRE The West Bank ministry in
Associated Press Ramallah gave similar ca-
JERUSALEM (AP) — Pal- sualty counts to its counter-
estinian health officials in part in Gaza over the first
Gaza said Tuesday that five weeks of war. But after
they have lost the ability to the Gaza ministry stopped
count the dead because counting, health authorities
of the collapse of parts of in Ramallah kept releasing
the enclave’s health sys- regular reports with death
tem and the difficulty of re- tolls most recently 13,300
trieving bodies from areas without discussing their
overrun by Israeli tanks and methodology. U.N. agen-
troops. cies said they could not
The Health Ministry in verify the West Bank minis-
Hamas-controlled Gaza, try’s numbers.
which carefully tracked The Health Ministry in the
casualties over the first five West Bank stopped provid-
weeks of war, gave its most ing its own count Tuesday
recent death toll of 11,078 without giving a reason.
on Nov. 10. The United Na- Because of that, and be-
tions humanitarian office, cause officials there de-
which cites the Health Min- clined to explain in detail
istry death toll in its regular how they tracked deaths
reports, still refers to 11,078 Palestinians pray for their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in front of after Nov. 11, the AP de-
as the last verified death the morgue of al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. cided to stop reporting the
toll from the war. Associated Press West Bank count.
The challenges involved ated Press. The electronic fire at anything in their path. bers, that’s not possible Authorities in Gaza said
in verifying the number of database that health au- Officials at the Health Min- anymore,” Health Ministry they could not account for
dead have mounted as Is- thorities use to compile ca- istry, long seen as the most official Mehdat Abbas said. how the West Bank’s Health
rael’s ground invasion has sualties from hospitals “is no reliable local source for “People are thrown in the Ministry tallied the num-
intensified and at times sev- longer able to count the casualties, said they be- streets. They’re under the bers. Al-Qidra described
ered phone and internet names and tally the statis- lieve the death toll has rubble. Who can count the figures released by the
service and sown chaos tics,” he said. jumped sharply in the past the bodies and release the Ramallah-based ministry as
across the territory. Al-Qidra said the ministry week based on doctors’ death toll in a press confer- “personal statistics” unre-
“Unfortunately, the Ministry was trying to restart the estimates after airstrikes on ence?” lated to Gaza’s ministry.
of Health has not yet been program and resume com- densely populated neigh- Abbas’ comments ap- “If someone is sitting in an
able to issue its statistics munication with hospitals. borhoods and reports peared to be a dig at the air-conditioned office,
because there is a break- Medics say it’s far too dan- from families about missing Health Ministry in the occu- he can say whatever he
down in communication gerous now to recover loved ones. But they said it pied West Bank, where the wants,” Abbas said. “But if
between hospitals and the untold scores of dead had become virtually im- internationally recognized you come to the field here,
disruption to the internet,” bodies in Gaza City, where possible to arrive at a pre- Palestinian Authority, a rival no one can work between
ministry spokesman Ashraf Israeli bulldozers have cise number of victims. of Hamas, administers au- tanks to count how many
al-Qidra told The Associ- blocked streets and tanks “No one has correct num- tonomous enclaves. people are killed.”q

Serbia and Croatia expel diplomats and further strain relations

between the Balkan neighbors

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia and Croatia each have expelled a diplomat from the
other country, a move that further strains relations between the two former wartime foes
and Balkan rivals.
The Serbian Foreign Affairs Ministry said Monday that the first secretary of the Croatian
Embassy in Belgrade was proclaimed persona non grata for his alleged “gross stepping
outside the framework of diplomatic norms” during his service.
In a reciprocal move, Croatia expelled a Serbian diplomat on Tuesday.
“We have decided that the adviser of the Embassy of Serbia in Croatia, Petar Nova-
kovic, should be declared persona non grata in Croatia,” Croatia’s Foreign Minister
Gordan Grlic Radman said.
Media close to the populist Serbian government said the Croatian diplomat, identified
as Hrvoje Snajder, is accused of “spying activities” and “recruiting” of people for Croa-
tian secret services.
The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs rejected the grounds for the dip-
lomat’s expulsion and called Serbia’s action “a step toward the deterioration of mutual
Security cameras are seen in front of a Serbian flag in relations” at a time “when the stability of southeastern Europe is of exceptional impor-
Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. tance for the whole of Europe.”q
Associated Press