US Muslim Group Criticizes Biden for Questioning Palestinian Death Toll
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent US civil rights group, joined the growing chorus of criticism against President Joe Biden's remarks that raised doubts about the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
"Journalists have confirmed the high number of casualties, and countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children – and entire city blocks leveled to the ground," CAIR stated in response.
"President Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication or an acceptable price of war. They are neither."
Palestinian-American activist and comedian Amer Zahr has also denounced Biden for casting doubt on the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
"As if the President hadn't already been complicit enough in the dehumanization of Palestinians, now he says he doesn't trust us when we say we are being murdered," Zahr told Al Jazeera. "How much lower could one stoop than to say we are lying about dying?"
Biden said he has "no confidence in the number that Palestinians are using" for the death toll in the Gaza Strip, whose health ministry says over 6,500 have been killed in Israeli attacks.
"I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocents have been killed," Biden said.
Biden also stated that the deaths of innocent Palestinians were "the price of waging war."
Biden did not say why he was skeptical of the Palestinian figures. The US president was replying to questions raised during his joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
In recent days, US intelligence officials also questioned the 471 death toll provided by Gaza authorities following the attack on Gaza's Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17.
