The Truth behind Number of Gazan Casualties Reported in the International Media

 

 Kobi Michael 06/11/2023

After only a few days of sympathy on the part of the international media and the international community regarding the disaster that befell the State of Israel on October 7, the trend reversed. The international media then began to focus on the Palestinian victims in the Gaza Strip, while international leaders and public figures began a campaign of condemnation against Israel to the point of accusing it of genocide and calling for a ceasefire, without at all referring to the reasons behind this war and Hamas’s murderous atrocities.

The international media and many in the international community rely on the reports of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, and is entirely subject to its authority and supervision. Referring to Hamas as a reliable source, even though it is a murderous and barbaric terrorist organization, indicates the depth of bias and hatred toward Israel and strong antisemitic roots.

There is no war in which there is no collateral damage and injury to unarmed civilians. However, there is no war in modern history in which the collateral damage is as limited as in this war. What helps reduce it is Israel's adherence to international law and the laws of armed conflict, as well as the supreme effort it makes to reduce this damage by issuing early warnings to the population and urging people to move south, while opening humanitarian corridors and safe traffic routes.

Hamas’s reliability is questionable and problematic, not only on the basis of past experience but in general as well. It is thus necessary to start from the assumption that the numbers of casualties reported are much higher than the real number. In addition, it is important to emphasize that a large number of victims are not innocent citizens but Hamas operatives who work in civilian clothes and assimilate into the population. Their identity is hidden or disguised even after they have been injured or killed, and they are included in the number of civilian casualties. Moreover, a significant percentage of the victims are the result of failed rocket fire by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, such as the incident at al-Ahli Hospital. There are also executions of civilians who seek to flee south and are shot by Hamas.

The numbers reported regarding children who were harmed are also far-fetched and exaggerated. Here we are dealing with a distortion related to both the international definitions regarding children (up to the age of 17 or 18, every young person is considered a child) and the fact that Hamas trains children for murderous terrorism from preschool age. Hamas recruits young children in their teens and uses them as terrorists. Many of the casualties reported as children are active Hamas terrorists.

In addition, many of those unarmed or uninvolved civilians who were killed as a direct result of IDF activity were killed because Hamas used them as human shields inside civilian buildings and infrastructure such as mosques, schools, clinics, and UNWRA facilities, which were all turned into military installations and rocket launch sites. This serves to present the victimhood narrative to the international media and the international community. Hamas not only does not seek to prevent harm to Palestinian civilians; it also acts with the intention of deliberately sacrificing its people for propaganda and media efforts.

One more word about the distorted discourse on proportionality, which is rooted in a disturbing ignorance about the nature of this war and seeks to place responsibility and blame on Israel for the lack of proportionality – as if there could be between the number of casualties on the Palestinian side and the Israeli side.

Ignoring the effort Israel makes by using human and material capital to develop systems that protect its population and save lives, while Hamas robs its people of international and Israeli aid, and invests all its human and material capital to develop means of killing and operates them from within the civilian population while using its population as human shields, is the most distorted point of view that the international media and the international community can present as a basis for blaming Israel and promoting the narrative of Palestinian victimhood. When death, a defining value in the eyes of Hamas and its ilk, succeeds in overshadowing the value of life as a defining value of sane civilizations, there is unquestionably cause for concern.

These are precisely the messages that must be presented firmly to the international media and the international community.