Biden Shuts Down Question on Civilian Death Toll In Gaza, Says ‘I Have No Confidence’ In Numbers Being Reported By Palestinians

PBS NewsHour’s White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López asked President Joe Biden to weigh in on the civilian death toll in Gaza during a joint press conference Wednesday with Australia’s prime minister.

“And if I may, very quickly, in the 18 days since Hamas and Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children. You’ve previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties. Do these numbers say to you that he is ignoring that message?” Barrón-López asked Biden.

“What they say to me is I have no notion whether Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are being killed,” Biden replied, adding:

I’m sure innocents have been killed and it’s the price of waging a war. I think we should be incredibly careful. I think that the Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel, and it is against our interests when that doesn’t happen. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.

In recent weeks, the media has come under increasing criticism for parroting Hamas-linked officials’ claims regarding airstrikes and the civilian death toll in Gaza. Major news outlets like the New York Times and CNN had to either correct or add editor’s notes to coverage of an alleged hospital bombing in Gaza that Palestinians quickly blamed on Israel and said killed 500 civilians.

Media investigations, Israeli intelligence, and U.S. assessments have all concluded that Islamic Jihad was likely to blame for the explosion at the hospital, which largely impacted its parking lot and, according to a U.S. intelligence report, is estimated to have killed “probably at the low end of the 100 to 300 spectrum.”

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.