House passes amendment to stop State Department from citing Hamas casualty figures

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved an amendment, introduced by Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, to the bill called Foreign Appropriations, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Act of 2025 in order to prohibit the State Department from publishing casualty data provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health because it is controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization.

The amendment received 269 votes in favor, 62 of which were Democrats, and 144 against.

Moskowitz argued that while civilian deaths in Gaza are tragic, the State Department should not trust the data provided by Hamas as a reliable source of information on the current number of victims. 

The Florida Democratic representative stated that "The Gaza Ministry of Health is the Hamas Ministry of Health." He added that the purpose of the Palestinian terrorist group "is to sell propaganda to the American people, to sell propaganda to the world. Hamas is not a credible source," he stated.

The amendment was proposed because President Joe Biden and administration officials have used casualty figures provided by Hamas in various statements.

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a regular critic of Israel, opposed the amendment in Congress, saying the measure represents a "genocide denial." She added: "There’s so much anti-Palestinian racism in this chamber that my colleagues don’t even want to acknowledge that Palestinians exist at all."

The bill has to pass both the House and Senate and be signed by the president to become law.