So far, close to half of the names are of dead Hamas men. A quarter are of civilians. 14 are of Fatah men killed by Hamas. The rest - many of them identified by name - are still being investigated, apparently most of them were young men, who may or may not have been Hamas fighters.
The IDF also has some indications the Hamas list of victims is not fully reliable:
The fatality list presented by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has numerous inaccuracies and contradictions, the IDF says. For example, Tawfiq Ja'abari, the commander of the Hamas police, and Mohammed Shakshak, a personal assistant to the head of Hamas' military wing, Ahmed Ja'abari, are both described as dead children on the Palestinian list.
Yaacov, I'm curious if you know how many Gazans might qualify as children - that is, under 18 - and as militants who would have to be (by different definitions) considered legitimate targets.
ReplyDeleteNow that the charges of Israeli brutality in Gaza (from Haaretz story) have turned out to have little merit, the NY Times hasn't posted a follow-up story casting doubt on the accusations it chose to run on the front page with little-to-no investigation.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we know that had more evidence appeared confirming the accusations, the NY Times would have run several more stories.
Instead, another story is featured online about Israel's PR efforts on the web, featuring a picture of Miss Israel. You know one of those articles that talks about how Israel is using technology to brighten its image, with the untold assumption that Israel is guilty and covering something up. It is also an effort to show that Israel has sophisticated PR in comparison to its enemies--when in fact, Israel is fairly inept at PR and its adversaries have the advantage of a friendly media and a population with no shame regarding telling the most obvious of lies.
I am very interested to know the final casualties and how they break down between civilians and terrorists. This means I will be able to rebutt the BBC/Guardian-fed rubbish I hear at work about about the terrible suffering of the Gazans as compared to the Congolese for instance.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I understand that 2500 Gazan dwellings were permanently destroyed in Cast Lead. Does anyone know what proportion this is as a total number of dwellings in the Strip? The impression were are given in the UK is one of wholesale destruction of urban areas.