By Mitch Gold
Before, during and after Oct. 7, Hamas control of Gaza was and is total. Hamas, the organization that planned and executed a massacre of the innocent, livestreamed their atrocities for the world to see.
Since that time, in reaction to Israel’s response, the international community, with rarely a hint of due diligence, has been constantly and consistently quoting Gazan fatalities succeeded by “according to Palestinian officials.”
Who are these Palestinian officials? They are certainly not from the West Bank-headquartered Palestinian Authority. The PA has not been in Gaza for almost 20 years.
The only Palestinian officials in Gaza are from Hamas, the perpetrators of Oct. 7. Nearly every high-ranking official in Gaza is on the Hamas payroll.
Hamas is the organization that rapes, murders and decapitates. It is an organization that uses hospitals for military bases.
If you are a mass murderer, lying seems relatively benign.
There is no doubt that the Israel Defense Force’s slow destruction of Hamas has, unfortunately, caused civilian deaths. The IDF has taken many steps to limit civilian casualties, including leaflets dropped from airplanes, text messages and cell phone apps.
Yet mistakes are made, including the accidental targeting of humanitarian workers.
At the same time, no army in history has made such a rigorous effort to protect civilians. This effort has two sides: fewer civilian casualties, but Hamas leadership and thousands of its henchmen have used this information to flee to Rafah as well.
How is it that Western governments and respectable newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal blindly trust statistics sourced from Palestinian officials without question?
Only recently have Hamas civilian death statistics been challenged in academia and the press. The first indication is that total civilian deaths are significantly fewer than reported by Gaza officials. More research is needed. In the meantime, doubt is in order.
On Oct. 17, 2023, 10 days after the darkest day in Israel’s existence, news alerts citing Palestinian officials said that an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital had killed more than 500 people. This turned out to be a gross lie. Ironically, some five months later, that same hospital was the scene of a major confrontation between Hamas and the IDF, resulting in significant losses for Hamas and the hospital’s partial destruction.
Mark Twain is credited with saying that “There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Do not believe the statistics Gaza officials say.
Mitch Gold is a founding member of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Baltimore and a member of the FIDF National Board.
