Hamas propaganda
It has been clear for many months that the civilian casualty statistics issued by Hamas-controlled organisations in Gaza are highly suspect. In fact, according to one study by data analysts in the US, if you relied on the terrorists’ figures you would have to believe that, on October 29 last year, 26 men came back to life. The study suggested that the number of women and children killed was being exaggerated.
Now the UN has adjusted its own figures. On May 6, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least 9,500 women and 14,500 children were among the dead in Gaza, out of an overall death toll of 34,735. Two days later, it reported different statistics entirely: 4,959 women and 7,797 children killed.
It should be a statement of the obvious that nobody knows the true number of civilian casualties in Gaza, but the readiness of politicians, activists and media organisations – including some reports in The Daily Telegraph – to accept Hamas’s figures uncritically has added fuel to the fire of the terrorists’ propaganda war. Hamas has a vested interest in maximising the number of women and children said to have been killed, part of its efforts to delegitimise Israel. The likes of the UN and the BBC should not be aiding them.
It may now be too late to correct the damage. The lies have fallen on fertile ground among groups who are often ignorant not just about the cause of the current conflict, but about the history of Israel itself. Israelis are not “settler-colonisers” committing genocide in Gaza. They are a free people defending themselves against terrorists.
