By Michael Ashcraft –
The death toll in Gaza has been artificially boosted, an independent study finds, to propagandize Hamas’ cause and stir up international complaints of “genocide” against Israel.
Researchers from the UK’s Henry Jackson Society found Hamas-generated statistics to be 160% higher than reality in terms of civilian deaths in Gaza. Hamas reported 44,000 deaths, but Israeli and U.S. sources say 17,000 of these are actually combatants.
The greater the numbers of mothers and children allegedly being killed, the louder the anti-Israel cries become.
While Hamas outwardly bemoans civilian deaths, the reality may be far different. They are “necessary sacrifices,” now dead Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said in June, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
Since Vietnam defeated America with the use of the clever propaganda campaign, leftists and Islamists have followed the playbook: a war of words can be decisive if a war of weapons fails.
“The ministry of health, operating under Hamas, has systematically inflated the death toll by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children and even including individuals who died before the conflict began,” the report says, as conveyed by the UK Telegraph.
“This has led to a narrative where the Israel Defense Forces are portrayed as disproportionately targeting civilians, while the actual numbers suggest a significant proportion of the dead are combatants,” the report adds.
The study unearthed statistical anomalies and inaccuracies. About 5,000 natural deaths have been attributed to war casualties. These included cancer patients who later appeared on lists of those still receiving hospital treatment.
Casualties are compiled by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, but the government is run by Hamas, which started the war and wages the effort to “free” Palestine by exterminating all Jews.
The Ministry of Health also changed adult casualties into “children,” and several men were recorded as women, the study found. It further found discrepancies in the age of the dead, usually with a downgrade, to make them younger than they were.
Even Gazans killed by “friendly fire” at the hands of other Hamas militants are added to totals killed by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Thus, an erroneous picture emerges before the world of more women and children being killed than is actually true.
“This misclassification contributes to the narrative that civilian populations, particularly women and children, bear the brunt of the conflict, potentially influencing sentiment and media coverage,” said Andrew Fox, the report’s author.
Despite a history of misrepresenting data from previous armed conflicts against Israel, Gaza has managed to persuade such media as the New York Times, the BBC and CNN to accept the numbers without questioning, the report says.
A mere 5% of the media mentioned casualty figures issued by the Israeli authorities, while 98% used those provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
This happens in the media despite even President Joe Biden casting doubt on Hamas’ cooked stats. “What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said in October 2023.
Unsurprisingly, Hamas sought to discredit the findings and stand by its numbers.
Dr Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestine Mission to the United Kingdom, said, “Numerous international organizations and UN agencies – including the WHO – have not only confirmed these numbers, they’ve made the point that they are severely underestimated.
“Because we don’t how many people are still buried under the rubble or have been killed indirectly as a result of Israel’s targeting of the health sector undermining all healthcare provision, the imposed famine and the wholesale destruction of infrastructure that has left 1.9 million people homeless.”
News organizations, however, need to balance their reporting and take into account the U.S./Israeli numbers, especially because of the Palestinians’ past history of making things up.
“Why does this matter?” the Telegraph asks. “Media outlets are not merely passive conduits of information; they play a critical role in shaping global perceptions. By failing to critically examine these figures, they risk misleading their audiences and policymakers.”
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About this writer: Michael Ashcraft pastors a church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
