Israeli forces bombed wide areas of the Gaza Strip on Sunday (December 3), killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, as civilians in the besieged territory sought shelter in an ever-shrinking area of the south. The Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Hamas-ruled enclave was among the sites reported hit from the air. A Gazan health ministry spokesperson said several people were killed by an Israeli air strike. This edit contains graphic images. Lauren Anthony has more.
The only Hamas reports the world should rely on are total figures killed, since they alone have access to the hospital and morgue records that reporting agencies would need. Unfortunately, they don’t indicate how many of those killed were combatants, or how many Palestinians have been killed by Hamas or PIJ. Reuters reports that there are 40,000 Hamas militants. Israel estimates fewer, and that about 4,000 have been killed in the fighting so far.
What CNN article are you talking about? Please link.
Hamas established the Gaza Health Ministry. I’m not really sure what you mean by the statement that they have been around before Hamas. I don’t know how many staff may predate the 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, but I’d be interested in learning if you have information about it. Here are articles from French, Canadian, US intelligence agencies independently verifying that Hamas (Gaza Health Ministry) lied about the al-Ahli hospital bombing.
They all concluded it was a misfired rocket from Gaza.
You have shifted your argument. Before you said that the Gaza Health Ministry is not a reliable source. Now you say they are for the total figures killed. I never really had much more than that. Their methodology only supports that much of a conclusion. Still… that’s over 13,000 dead. We aren’t even talking about casualties, just the dead.
This is your post in which you linked to this CNN article. As for the other articles you provided, none were from intelligence agencies. They were all published by new outlets (surprisingly you sourced one from Al Jazeera) within seven days of the attack and none mention their data and methods for drawing this conclusion. Just that they are confident. Why is this enough for you?
I want to be clear here. I’m not saying that a rocket fired from Gaza by Palestinian militants didn’t hit the hospital. I’m saying that I need better evidence.
I’m also saying that the report from the Gaza Health Ministry at that time could very well be wrong. But not because of any agenda on their part but because their statement was made too close to the date of the incident without sufficient evidence to support their conclusion.
Hamas may have established the Gaza Health Ministry, but the personnel and systems were already in place when they worked for the Palestinian Ministry of Health. I got that from The Week’s article where they said “and many of the Gaza Health Ministry’s civil servants predate Gaza’s Hamas takeover.”
Your link doesn’t provide the Israelis estimate for Hamas fighters. Nor does it give the methodology for their determination if someone is Hamas fighter. If they are using the standard developed during the American invasion of Afghanistan, then it’s every male of a fighting age.