Civilian Casualty Figures

Shalom All,

NPR says that Palestinian doctors in Gaza say that the death toll is at least 350 and that at least 80 of those are civilians. These numbers are certainly troubling, but they are also grossly inaccurate. Many organizations are arguing that ALL women are civilians including those that actively support Hamas forces, that anyone not wearing a uniform or not actively engaged in a firefight at the time of their killing is a civilian, which then excludes the vast majority of militants, and that "children" include anyone under seventeen (see any UN report on casualties). The pictures of children much younger than 17 actively engaged in attacks should render that conception moot. Clearly 14, 15, and 16 year old children are involved and not innocent by-standers. "Children" should ONLY include those that Hamas would prevent from engaging in the conflict, which would be children much younger than 17 years of age. Only official police members would be wearing uniforms and therefore the vast majority of militants could qualify as "civilians" if the one conducting the tally either did not know that they were legitimate military targets or wanted to portray them as civilians in order to increase the civilian death total.

That said, considering that Hamas embeds itself in residential areas, there are certainly going to be REAL civilian casualties, many of which will have nothing to do with Israeli strikes as was the case with the two children killed when a Hamas rocket misfired and fell on their home.

Even among the Police forces, one must assume that there are those who were in their ranks not to assist Hamas, but in order to provide for their families and to have a fulfilling job. Hamas' use of the police forces to enforce their own rule then turned "police" into "soldiers."

Since this is urban guerilla warfare, virtually any male who can hold a gun becomes a possible combantant. Depending upon how casualties are determined, one can have a very high or a very low civilian death total. In order to sway public opinion against Israel, Hamas and all Palestinians reporting from Gaza, must be assumed to be inflating the total and giving unreliable information. Only a disaffected third party could be trusted to rely accurate information and then only if they fully understand that the man without a uniform lying before them may certainly be a civilian, but may also be a militant. The major news organizations employ Palestinians to gather and relay information. Hence, virtually no report will be without the possibility of significant bias, especially not reports coming from Gaza based hospital spokespeople as quoted by NPR.

-David