Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today, we bring you a bonus episode of Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Andrew Fox.

Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, served in the British Army from 2005 to 2021, completing three tours in Afghanistan, including one attached to the US Army Special Forces. At the transatlantic think tank, he specializes in Defense, the Middle East, and disinformation. He holds degrees in Law and Politics, Modern War Studies and Psychology.

This week, Fox and a team of researchers published a report that made international headlines titled, "Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza."

According to the report, the Palestinian death toll for the Gaza war appears to include thousands of people who died of natural causes as well as incorrect figures — partly in an effort to inflate the toll of women and children.

Worse, international media outlets are too quick to accept the figures from terror group Hamas -- usually without the scrutiny and rigor that are applied when reporting numbers supplied by Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry's figures, the report claims, are being manipulated for propaganda needs.

[caption id="attachment_3442530" align="alignright" width="300"] Andrew Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, on a research trip in the Gaza Strip, summer 2024. (courtesy)[/caption]

The Gaza health ministry, under Hamas, “has systematically inflated the death toll by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children and even including individuals who died before the conflict began,” the report said.

We discuss the report and hear Fox's assessment of how the IDF's operations in Gaza have played out, as well as the one arena Israel has neglected -- the fight for world opinion.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

UK think tank: Gaza death toll inflated to defame Israel for targeting civilians

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: The IDF operates in the southern Gaza Strip's Rafah in this hand out image from December 16, 2024. (IDF)