Biden misfires with dismissal of Palestinian death figures In any war, statistics on deaths are fuzzy and subject to change. Almost a month after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the precise number of dead from it is unclear, as 200 bodies remain unidentified. The Israeli prime minster's office says more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers died. Meanwhile, Israel's response — a bombing campaign and now a major ground assault — had killed 8,805 as of Tuesday, according to a count by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. At an Oct. 25 White House news conference, a reporter began a question to Biden by noting that "the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children." The president responded that he had "no confidence" in statistics issued by the ministry. But the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which tracks deaths in the conflict, has found the ministry's numbers to be reliable after conducting its own investigation. "Experience indicated that tolls were reported with high accuracy," an official with the U.N. organization told The Fact Checker. We dug into the debate over the ministry's statistics, including its controversial announcement that nearly 500 had been killed in a hospital incident on Oct. 17. Click the link below to see our detailed examination. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Pro-Haley group targets DeSantis on China deals Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are tied for a distant second place, behind former president Donald Trump, in the latest Iowa poll of Republicans in Iowa, whose voters will be the first to weigh in on the presidential race when they have their caucuses Jan. 15. It's been a stunning drop for DeSantis, once seen as Trump's main rival, and a rapid rise for Haley. Now both teams are playing fast and loose with the facts. We examined an attack ad by a super PAC that supports Haley. It appropriately called out DeSantis for a falsehood he peddled about Haley — but then it went off course with an attack that claimed DeSantis, as a member of Congress, had voted to "fast-track Obama's Chinese trade deals." The ad cited two votes. But when we examined those votes, they had nothing to do with Chinese trade deals. By any measure, this ad does not pass the laugh test. Click the link to learn the Pinocchio rating. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. We're also on TikTok. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. About the cats: It's a Friday and sometimes our fact checks deal with heavy or depressing subjects. So we hope to bring a smile to your face. Scroll down to read Israel-related fact checks | 
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