Gaza: the myth of civilian casualties

The world is outraged by the number of ‘Palestinians’ who have died during the 2014 Gaza-Israel war. According to the latest UN numbers, as of August 5, 2014, some 1,777 ‘Palestinians’ have been killed (“As Gaza ceasefire begins, UN Chief urges parties to commence peace talks in Cairo”, UN News Centre, August 5, 2014).

Israel is blamed for almost all those deaths. The UN claims that 85 per cent of those deaths are civilian (ibid).

The world, following the UN’s lead, has immunized Hamas against the war crimes it has committed during this war. Everyone agrees: Hamas’s responsibility for those deaths is zero. Israel, on the other hand, is guilty of war crimes.

 The world, following the UN’s lead, has reached a verdict: if a terror organization uses a war crime (human shields) to attack a democracy, that democracy has no right to defend itself if those human shields die.

But the ‘excessive’ death numbers that have so outraged the world may not even be real. First of all, those casualty figures come exclusively from Hamas sources (“Why doesn’t Israel publish figures and details of Gaza casualties?”, Times of Israel, July 15, 2014). There is no independent source in Gaza to verify Hamas number. The UN claims that its numbers have been verified. But who verifies the numbers? Hamas.

Second, when the Gazan Health Ministry announces death numbers, its identification of combatant and civilian is completely arbitrary. Neither the UN nor world media has questioned how those identifications have been done.   

The world media has been playing a propaganda game with casualty numbers. Their game airbrushes Hamas and criminalizes Israel. For too few, the Gazan numbers aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on (ibid). Hamas has too much invested in publishing higher, not lower, civilian deaths numbers (ibid) to be honest. To paraphrase a Canada Free Press story, you’ve got as much chance for Hamas to be honest with its casualty reports as you would have the chance to be successful asking a priest to convert to Judaism (“Time Runs Out on Counting Casualties in Gaza”, Canada Free Press, July 29, 2014).

Third, there is the question of the basic accuracy of Hamas reports. For example, if you look at the readily-available Mortality rate for Gaza, you will learn that, on average, 16.9 Gazans die on any given day. This means that, after 27 days of fighting, we can expect that 456 Gazan civilians would have died anyway (that’s what Mortality tables tell you--16.9 dead on each of 27 days equals 456 dead). How many of the supposedly 1,777 dead were not war casualties, but normal deaths?

Hamas says, none. All were killed by Israel.

The UN accepts that without question or comment. The world follows the lead of the UN.

How many of the dead died from Hamas rockets that misfired and landed among Gazans? According to Hamas, none.

The UN accepts that. The world follows the UN.

How many of the dead were executed by Hamas as collaborators with Israel? Some sources say at least thirty. Hamas says, none.

The UN accepts that. So does world media.

How many of the deaths were Gazan Fatah members executed by Hamas under cover of war? Hamas says, none.

The UN doesn’t question Hamas. Neither does the world.

A story surfaced in Israel that at least 20 Gazans were killed by Hamas during an anti-Hamas demonstration less than two weeks ago. Hamas denies it. The UN and the world believe Hamas.

What per cent of that 1,777 death toll is pure fabrication? Hamas—along with the UN—says, zero per cent. The number is perfectly correct.

To understand how Hamas could be cooking the death numbers, the Canada Free Press story (above) made the following statement: A citizen blogger went through Al Jazeera’s list of names of the deceased, and found that approximately 82 percent were male, and a plurality were in their 20s.

In case you missed the point, that’s not a normal demographic statistic. It suggests that the majority of dead were combatants, not civilians.

But for Hamas, they were almost all civilians. So far as the UN and world media were concerned, only a handful of total deaths were combatants. Yet Israel today claims that perhaps 900 of the 1,777 deaths were combatants (“900 operatives killed over Gaza campaign, IDF says”, Times of Israel, August 5, 2014).

It doesn’t matter. No one believes the IDF (Israel Defense Force). Everyone believes Hamas.

The inference is, we cannot believe a democracy over a terror organization.  Terror organizations are open and honest; democracies are corrupt, closed and dishonest, right?

The world blindly accepts the Hamas casualty numbers without a single comment, even though we know from past experience that Hamas lies about casualty figures (Gaza's Civilian Casualties: The Truth Is Very Different”, Gatestone Institute, August 3, 2014).

The mainstream media’s reporting of this war, particularly the Gazan death toll, has been despicable (Canada Free Press, ibid). If you listen to the UN and world media, you can only draw one conclusion: the IDF is commanded and manned from top-to-bottom by psychopathic baby-killing thugs (Gatestone Institute, above, ibid).

The world has chosen to defend terror. It has chosen to vilify a democracy.

The world will reap what it has sown.  

---

(I aim to post a second essay later today)