(NewsNation) — Pinning down an accurate number of casualties in the Israel-Hamas conflict has proven to be challenging, as the source for Palestinian casualties is controlled by Hamas, and the numbers given by the Gaza Health Ministry cannot be independently verified.

Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, says in an information war, casualty numbers “need to be qualified.”

“(To say) that the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health’s numbers cannot be verified independently. It’s hard to independently verify anything during a war anyway, which gives an advantage to the propagandists in these conflicts,” Cook said Wednesday on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”

President Joe Biden himself questioned the veracity of the Palestinian casualty numbers.

“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” he told reporters Wednesday during a news conference.

Biden’s comments came a day after John Kirby, a White House spokesperson on national security issues, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested any information coming out of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry should be treated with skepticism.

Still, the president’s comments at the press conference drew criticism from some outside groups.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the group was “deeply disturbed and shocked by the dehumanizing comments that President Biden made about the almost 7,000 Palestinians slaughtered by the Israeli government over the past two weeks.” 

Since the war began Oct. 7, Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed. The figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.

The Health Ministry also said more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours. The death toll could not be independently verified, and it was not known if the count included any militants.

Cook said it’s difficult to separate Hamas from the Health Ministry, considering Hamas took control of government functions when it took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.

“As a result, those ministers who are speaking to the media and other officials are employees of Hamas, they are the Hamas government,” Cook said. “Even those Palestinian who may be independent in the Gaza Strip live under a state of coercion, that it would be harmful to them if they were to speak out against Hamas or counter the Hamas narrative.”

The information war has already resulted in geopolitical consequences.

Leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority called off a planned summit with Biden following an explosion at a Gaza hospital last week that the Health Ministry initially claimed killed 500 or more people. That death toll has since been revised downward, and U.S. officials believe it to be somewhere in the 100-300 casualty range.

But the explosion sparked mass protests across the Arab world in support of the Palestinian cause.

“The media outlets that reported the story of al-Ahli Hospital at face value based on what Hamas told them are at least indirectly responsible for those large protests around the region that led to the canceling of this summit,” Cook said. “There is a major information war underway.”

NewsNation producer Darcy Bonfils, The Hill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.