GAZA WAR — 8,000 CHILDREN KILLED SO FAR?

Hamas is publicising every day new figures of people being killed. They are classed predominantly as women and children. The IDF is blamed exclusively for this appalling loss of civilian lives, with videos constantly showing injured babies and infants.

These numbers are provided for by Hamas through its “Health Ministry” and are generally confirmed by UNWRA and other UN institutions.

Any loss of civilians in a war is deeply regrettable; women and children being killed is traumatic for anyone showing any empathy. However, as propaganda plays an increasingly big role in any conflict we have to consider the validity of the information provided by one of the war parties — Hamas.

Firstly, Gaza is the 35th fastest growing population in the world according to the UN population yearbook. This, in turn, points to the fact that a very high percentage of the population — about 50% — are under 20 years of age. Any information about collateral damage resulting in injuries and death of many minors are therefore likely to be true. However, as has been documented in many videos and reports, Hamas is recruiting children from very early age on to be trained in using weapons and are indoctrinated at a very early age (from age 6) to fight Israel and kill Jews.

During the recent pause in fighting, where a number of Israeli women and children were released, most of them being babies and toddlers, some of them teenagers, Israel released Palestinian detainees — women and “children”. However, the children released from Israeli detention were 14 years to 18 years old who had been arrested as they had committed violence against military, police or civilians. In other words, these teenagers had been active participants in open hostilities, often affiliated with either Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

We have no reliable information on the total number of people killed nor on the make-up of these numbers. The overall numbers are hard to verify. Information is supplied by Hamas members controlling the health ministry. They are passed on to local employees of the UNWRA and other UN organisations. International staff of these organisations are predominantly not in Gaza but are operating in Geneva, New York and other cities around the world. They take the information supplied by their local employees, who, especially in the case of UNWRA are either members of Hamas or were appointed after Hamas has vetted their loyalty to the terrorist group. The information about the total number of casualties coming from UNWRA and other UN institutions such as the WHO has to be doubted or at least be looked at very critically.

As we have seen in the case of the Shifa hospital, where the immediate claim was that Israel had bombed the hospital and killed over 500 people, it turned out that the explosion in the car park of the hospital was caused by a misfired Hamas missile and killed an unknown number but estimated to be less than 50. According to various reports, the percentage of misfired missiles landing and exploding inside Gaza killing innocent civilians is between 15 and 25%. Given that thousands of missiles were fired at Israel it should be clear that hundreds landed inside Gaza and were likely to have caused a significant toll on its citizens.

Next is the question how many of the claimed 20,000 dead are Hamas fighters. Hamas, different to Israel, does not publish any information on the death of their fighters. Hamas fighters are now carrying out a guerrilla war: fighters have shed their uniforms and have disappeared into civilian areas. According to the IDF, weapons are hidden and found in hundreds of apartments, especially in destroyed buildings. Hamas guerrillas are ordered to go to these locations, retrieve weapons and hit Israeli troops and their vehicles before hiding again amongst civilians. Often orders are given by Hamas to these fighters to shoot missiles or IEDs from places right amongst civilian areas where innocent people have fled to. This in turn only triggers responses by the IDF which sometimes, despite prior warning, are causing loss of civilian lives.

These fighters killed in confrontation with the IDF include teenagers aged 14,15, 16 and 17 years of age who are members of the Hamas (or Islamic Jihad) fighting force. But anyone killed at this age is immediately classed by Hamas as a dead civilian “child”. Some Hamas officials are even claiming that 8,000 babies have been killed which is obviously pure propaganda with the aim to continue to influence international opinion around the world, fuel demonstrations and hype anti-Israel and anti-Semitic actions we have witnessed in many countries.

Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy which has and will take place in any war. There is no reliable information on the number of civilian death fighting Al-Qaida in Afghanistan or ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Huge population displacements are also always occurring in wars: more than a million Rohingyas had to flee, millions of people in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, DRC, Sri Lanka and in other war torn countries are refugees as a result of aggression, terrorism and war.

In the case of Gaza, once Hamas has been removed from power and a lasting cease fire has been implemented, Gazans will move back to their homes. Pictures coming out of Gaza focus on vast destruction but other picture show that the majority of the civilian buildings and large areas of the cities are standing, suffered no damage at all or only minor damage. These houses and apartments will be fit to house their residents again. It will take time to rebuild infrastructure and apartment buildings which have been destroyed but the larger part of the population will return to their houses in due course.

Billions will flow into Gaza to rebuild the strip. With Hamas removed it can only be hoped that these funds will be applied to the benefit of the people instead of buying arms and building military infrastructure or being siphoned off into private Hamas leaders accounts. The result will be a significant change in employment in the strip where unemployment before the war was at around 50%. Maybe the war will result in a fundamental change in the life of Gazans after 17 years of Hamas Islamist dictatorship and 6 major wars since 2006, not counting the frequent shooting of missiles between the wars, and deliver to them a new political system, new leadership and the reality of a much better future than what was experienced before.