This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3836
January 22, 2009
Dr. Treating Wounded In Gaza Says Death Toll Vastly And Intentionally Inflated
By WILLIAM MAYER and BEILA RABINOWITZ
January 22, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNnews.org - The Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera [see, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660423,00.html] is reporting that a Gazan doctor is claiming that at most 5-600 people have died as a result of the recent war in Gaza, a figure in stark contrast to counts as high as 1,300 which are being reported by media sources such as AP as well as the usual suspects at the UN and Red Cross.
The doctor, who is refusing to disclose his identity due to death threats made by Hamas, has alleged that the terrorist group has inflated the number in two manners, one passive the other active.
On the active side, he says that young men between 17 and 24 were sought out and then intentionally lightly armed. They were then sent out [possibly impressed] on what Hamas' leaders knew were essentially suicide missions against the Israeli army, given the far superior armament and professionalism of the IDF.
When these cannon fodder youth fighters became casualties they at the same time became exhibits in Hamas' public relations effort, paraded as examples of Israeli brutality. The doctor also had observed these youth fighters were directed to fire at Gazan civilians and their homes so that too, could be blamed on the Israelis.
As these writers noted previously [for example, in Support For Hamas' Use Of Child Hostages Indicative Of Islam's Moral Bankruptcy?, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hamasid=1.5.09%2Ehtm] it is Hamas' official strategy to cause as many "civilian" victims as possible which will then be offered up as evidence of "Zionist" war crimes to a compliant Western press.
The doctor observed that most of the youths he had treated were armed.
The other way Hamas is driving the body count is through sheer fabrication, in this case apparently doubling or possibly tripling the actual numbers, knowing that the MSM will not likely question the figures. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=gazaid=1.22.09%2Ehtm
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3836