Reports of Palestinian deaths in Gaza typically include estimates of the total number killed, then the numbers of women and children killed. The numbers are low estimates because hundreds of civilians are still buried under the rubble of bombed buildings. The latest estimates are 25,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7, including 10,000 childrenand 7,000 women. Rarely are estimates of men killed given.
Before last October, Israel estimated Hamas had 25,000 to 30,000 members, that’s about 1.4 percent of the population of Gaza. Israel now estimates they have killed 9,000 Hamas. They would need to classify all men killed as Hamas terrorists and reclassifying a thousand children killed as members of Hamas to get to 9,000 Hamas killed. Israel also estimates that 16,000 Hamas fighters have been wounded. Adding the killed and wounded, Hamas has been almost wiped out so…. mission accomplished and Israel can stop killing. Israel is obviously misleading the public with its estimates of the number of Hamas killed.
Since 1.4 percent of the population in Gaza was Hamas, and since the bombs did not only kill fighters, a closer estimate of Hamas killed would be 1.4 percent of the 25,000 killed or about 350 Hamas members. The number of Hamas killed is probably a little higher than 350 because there has been some ground combat where real fighters are killed.
Since Israel considers all Palestinian males past puberty in Gaza to be Hamas terrorists. The consequences are predictable. If a mother pushes her teenage son behind her to hide him from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), Israel interprets it as Hamas using human shields and both are killed. Schools are targets for bombs because they are considered training grounds for Hamas fighters and the little schoolgirls are being used by Hamas as human shields. Hospitals and all buildings are targets because men may be found there, and all men are legitimate targets as terrorists regardless of the women and children present.
On October 7, Hamas killed 1,139 people. That included 36 children and 373 IDF and security personnel. A third of the people killed by Hamas were military forces, versus less than two percent of those killed by Israel being Hamas fighters. Only three percent of those killed by Hamas were children while 40 percent of those killed by Israel were children. Israel claims to be the most moral military in the world. They just lost that title to Hamas.
The post The Most Moral Military on Earth appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Mark Wigg.
Mark Wigg | Radio Free (2024-01-26T06:53:40+00:00) The Most Moral Military on Earth. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2024/01/26/the-most-moral-military-on-earth/
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