Israel didn't roll tanks into Gaza on October 8. Civilians were given a couple of weeks to evacuate. And then the posts about death tolls of civilians in Gaza started showing up, and bleeding hearts begged for a "proportionate" response. Hamas terrorists had only killed about 1,200 civilians on October 7, so why not let Israel kill 1,200 members of Hamas and then call it even?
The U.S. media was mixed in its reporting of casualties: They always reported the same number, but some added that the source for the number was the Gaza Health Ministry, while others just took the number as fact.
The campus protesters are now posting about the deaths of some 30,000 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children. The United Nations, whom we don't necessarily trust anyway, has just slashed the number of women and children killed by about half, which means it's less than that.
UN revises Gaza death toll, almost 50% less women and children killed than previously reported https://t.co/lUWqTIWByK
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 13, 2024
The National Post reports:
The United Nations has significantly adjusted Palestinian casualty figures for the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, halving the number of women and children previously reported killed.
While more than 9,500 women and 14,500 children were reported among the fatalities by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on May 6, two days later that number was revised significantly downward. Today, under 5,000 women and 8,000 children are now officially listed by the UN as casualties.
David Adesnik, director of research at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told the National Post he suspects the discrepancy stems from the UN’s decision to quietly stop using figures provided by the Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO).
Do you think? Hamas has ridiculously inflated the number of casualties in Gaza to garner sympathy from the world?
Seth Mandel makes the point, too, that Hamas considers children anyone under 20, so a 19-year-old Hamas terrorist would be lumped in with that group:
The key point of the UN's death-toll revision, from my piece today: pic.twitter.com/W6t6u6DDlT
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) May 13, 2024
The UN has significantly adjusted Palestinian casualty figures for the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, halving the number of women and children previously reported killed.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) May 13, 2024
Who is surprised to learn the Hamas-run Ministry of Health lied and the UN went along with it for 7 months?…
I'm starting to think these Hamas fellas can't be trusted.
— Bob (@BikingForBeer) May 13, 2024
I had to search deep to find that fact. No it’s not being reported. The inflated numbers are still being used. Now the media ignores the UN?
— kujo (@kimmyfromva) May 13, 2024
When will Biden, Blinken and, especially, Austin correct their past on the record statements
— As You Wish (@dovgal18) May 13, 2024
Meanwhile the news outlets that breathlessly passed along the phony numbers will not issue any retractions, instead moving on to gobble up the next set of lies and Hamas claptrap to pass along to their naive readers
— User (@AI_OVERL0RD) May 13, 2024
And the UN is wholly sympathetic to the Palestinians' cause.
The bad figures are repeated every hour by lunatics ranging from Berlin and Malmo to New York and Seattle, and no one cares that a correction has been made due to outright lying. That’s the purpose of it all.
— Loren (@SDCLoren) May 13, 2024
It disturbs me that it appears US intelligence, as well as the UN, had accepted without question Hamas' claims regarding ANYTHING.
— 🇺🇸Carrie Sweet🇺🇦 (@Anybodyhomehere) May 13, 2024
Not to mention Hamas counts every dead gazan regardless of the reason of death as a casualty caused by Israel so very likely a 1:1-1:1.5 combatant to civilian ratio
— Matan Krasner (@MatanKrasner) May 13, 2024
Israeli gov't spox @AviHyman confirms Israeli "genuine estimate" of Palestinian casualties in Gaza: 14,000 terrorists, 16,000 civilians. The latter is a tragedy, the result of Hamas using civilians as human shields. It is also an historically low ratio of civilian casualties.
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) May 13, 2024
The ratio is closer to 1:1 when you account for deaths from natural causes. Per UN, death rate in Gaza is 3-4 per 1K, which would imply 7-9K deaths annually in "normal" times.
— Eitan 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 (@eitanaltman) May 13, 2024
So ~4K from natural causes, or 5K+ including deaths from Hamas/PIJ fire/misfire within Gaza.
It's like counting the contractor who fell off a ladder and died a COVID-19 casualty because he had the virus in his system.
As we're continually reminded by Sen. John Fetterman (!), Hamas is responsible for these deaths. Hamas started a war on October 7 that it couldn't finish. Hamas could always surrender and release the remaining hostages, five of whom are Americans.
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