The conservative death toll count for Gaza stands at over 28.000 (of Gaza's total population of ~2.3 mio) in the past 4 months.
A majority of the population of Gaza has fled their homes, is suffering shortages of food, water and medical services. Many have lived in temporary shelters for months. Of those, 1.5 mio are said to currently shelter in the Rafah area.
Imagining larger scale military operations in that area is disturbing, to say the least.
@lirontocker Taking another step back: I was quoting the best available numbers, to my knowledge. Framing this as me "quoting Hamas" does not sit entirely well with me.
@hko but these are the official numbers released by Hamas’ Health Ministry, I’m not making it up. They omit the ~12k militants which are part of that number. It doesn’t sit well with me either but I keep seeing it everywhere.
@lirontocker@hko A 1.5x ratio of collateral deaths means Hamas's strategy of ensuring the population will remain riled up for generations is working :-/
@lirontocker I'm aware that the Gaza health ministry publishes those numbers.
And I'm sure we are both aware that Hamas is an organization that plays many roles. Among those roles, they serve as something akin to an elected civil administration, including the health ministry.
@hko Hamas is a terror organization which exists for a stated purpose, which is to destroy the state of Israel (see charter). It has attempted to further this by activities that go beyond direct military action, by forming a political party and becoming a pseudo government. Their health ministry is part of this agenda, as is every related group, and is not an independent organization. What they release and how they release information is not independent from the organization’s goals.
@hko I think you’re missing my point, which was that quoting numbers released by Hamas, regardless of how accurate they ultimately are or aren’t, without mentioning at all that it includes a large percentage of militants, makes it appear like they are civilian deaths (which is what Hamas ultimately wants since it itself is not reporting militant deaths).
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