Gaza doctor: Hamas is lying about death toll

I know you’re going to be shocked to hear this.

Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported Thursday that a doctor working in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital claimed that Hamas has intentionally inflated the number of casualties resulting from Israel’s Operation Cast Lead.

“The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter,” according to the newspaper article.

The doctor wished to remain unidentified, out of fear for his life.

No kidding. And here’s a Palestinian who accuses Hamas terrorists of war crimes.

A Tal al-Hawa resident told the newspaper’s reporter, “Armed Hamas men sought out a good position for provoking the Israelis. There were mostly teenagers, aged 16 or 17, and armed. They couldn’t do a thing against a tank or a jet. They knew they are much weaker, but they fired at our houses so that they could blame Israel for war crimes.”

This part, though I am doubtful about:

The reporter for the Italian newspaper also quoted reporters in the Strip who told of Hamas’ exaggerated figures, “We have already said to Hamas commanders – why do you insist on inflating the number of victims?”

These same reporters mentioned that the truth that will come out is likely to be similar to what occurred in Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin. “Then, there was first talk of 1,500 deaths. But then it turned out that there were only 54, 45 of which were armed men,” the Palestinian reporters told the Italian newspaper.

I don’t buy that anyone contradicted Hamas “commanders.” Nor do I buy that the death toll will fall by that much. What I don’t doubt is that Hamas terrorists will be listed as civilians, that 17-year-old Hamasniks with guns in their hands had their guns taken from them after they died, and were counted as civilians and children, and that the UN will be wholly complicit with these lies, because the UN has shown that is exactly what it does, time and again, in this conflict. It ignores video evidence of Hamas using UN ambulances to transport and rescue Hamas terrorists. It ignores video evidence that the Palestinians fake funerals. It ignores all evidence that Hamas fires rockets and shoots at Israelis from civilian areas, denies that UNRWA properties are involved, turns a blind eye to the terrorists on its payroll, and manages to condemn Israel for every single Palestinian death, no matter what. This is why the death toll won’t come down:

According to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, on the first day of the war Hamas ordered its gunmen to take off their uniforms to avoid being detected by the IDF. The Hamas gunmen who participated in the fighting against the IDF were all dressed as civilians and the majority arrived at hospitals without their weapons or any other signs revealing their status as gunmen.

The UN will count them as civilians because Palestinian “medics” will count them as such. Because either those medics are part and parcel of Hamas, or there is a Hamas terrorist within earshot, putting that medic’s name down on a list to be taken care of later, when the UN representative is gone.

Remember this, when you read through the fever swamp of Jew-hatred in Snoopy’s Guardian links. It’s the side of Hamas that never gets much play outside the Israeli press. And it’s the reason for the death toll. If Hamas had not been firing rockets at Israel, the IDF would not have gone into Gaza. It’s as simple as that.

Update: The IDF denies the Italian report about the casualties, and confirms what I wrote earlier: That most of the dead are Hamas terrorists.