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….

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.”

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.

(from Honest Reporting)

It’s just as I said in my previous post. Hamas are the purveyors of Bullshit. They tell such porkies that their noses must be a mile long!

A favourite author of mine whose pseudonym is Saki describes one of his characters as “a duck that goes flapping about with forced cheerfulness long after its head’s been cut off.” This quote reminds me of the knight in the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” movie, who has lost both his arms and both his legs but is optimistic that he is really, really, doing fine and that he is actually the victor in the battle that had just taken place.

Now back to the unilateral ceasefire that Israel has announced. As long as Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, the ceasefire will endure, but of course, as expected, there was a flurry of rockets into Israel and then Hamas agreed to sit in the naughty corner. After a few hours of sulking it announced that it too was declaring a unilateral ceasefire. So there!

So now we have two unilateral ceasefires. For the time being, that is, until the absentee leader of Hamas, Khaled Meschal, who is relaxing in Damascus, can persuade his gullible followers that they should continue the resistance.

And there’s more…not only are the people of Gaza victims but they are also victors. Easy for Meschal to say, when he is safely away from all the action. So much flapping about from the naughty chair. Hamas has given Israel one week to leave and that’s straight after Israel said it will start pulling out ASAP. Huh? Time to have a pensive suck of the old thumb, I suggest. Make up your mind. Are you winners or losers? Have a good look at what you have done to your people.

Much has been claimed about the disproportionate casualties and deaths in Gaza. I have to agree with that. We have just been told by the BBC that 56% of the population of Gaza is under 16. Assuming that half of the rest of the population of Gaza are women, then it means that about 78% of Gazans are women and children. Given that only about 1/3 of the reported casualties are women and children, it shows that these are significantly fewer than one should expect. This is where the disproportion occurs.

In my opinion, therefore, this comparatively low number of child casualties demonstrates that the Israelis have been extremely cautious about whom they target. This is in spite of Hamas’s nefarious habit of hiding among their civilians and using them as human shields

Let’s face it, the Hamas shelling into Israel has been directed at all civilians, not militants, and it doesn’t matter to Hamas whether the targets are women and children. Whilst Israel fights to protect its people, Hamas use their own as human shields and cannon fodder.

It is Hamas who are responsible for the deaths of their own women and children and according to their infamous Charter, that terrorist organisation would like to annihilate all Jews. If Hamas is prepared to sacrifice their own children to their murderous cause, well, we have to take them seriously, don’t we?

A zoo was discovered to have been wired with Hamas explosives in Gaza. Although I think that it is very laudable for PETA (the animal activists) to rescue a geriatric lobster from a tank in a New York restaurant, where is Peta’s outrage at a zoo being rigged to blow up Israeli soldiers or any Gazan children who might walk by? How about the animals that were left there to be blown up?

Seems as if PETA are very selective about their protests, aren’t they? If they really cared about animals, they would have complained about Hamas’s booby trapping of the zoo.

In my opinion, PETA are above all else politically motivated and animal rights are just a means to an end. You only have to listen to them raving on about wanting to destroy the wool industry in Australia to be suspicious about who is funding them.

This is a story which appeared in the New York Times on January 8 2009
It speaks for itself

GAZA CITY — The emergency room in Shifa Hospital is often a place of gore and despair. On Thursday, it was also a lesson in the way ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth.

Dr. Awni al-Jaru, 37, a surgeon at the hospital, rushed in from his home here, dressed in his scrubs. But he came not to work. His head was bleeding, and his daughter’s jaw was broken.

He said Hamas militants next to his apartment building had fired mortar and rocket rounds. Israel fired back with force, and his apartment was hit. His wife, Albina, originally from Ukraine, and his 1-year-old son were killed.

“My son has been turned into pieces,” he cried. “My wife was cut in half. I had to leave her body at home.” Because Albina was a foreigner, she could have left Gaza with her children. But, Dr. Jaru lamented, she would not leave him behind.

A car arrived with more patients. One was a 21-year-old man with shrapnel in his left leg who demanded quick treatment. He turned out to be a militant with Islamic Jihad. He was smiling a big smile.

“Hurry, I must get back so I can keep fighting,” he told the doctors.

He was told that there were more serious cases than his, that he needed to wait. But he insisted. “We are fighting the Israelis,” he said. “When we fire we run, but they hit back so fast. We run into the houses to get away.” He continued smiling.

“Why are you so happy?” this reporter asked. “Look around you.”

A girl who looked about 18 screamed as a surgeon removed shrapnel from her leg. An elderly man was soaked in blood. A baby a few weeks old and slightly wounded looked around helplessly. A man lay with parts of his brain coming out. His family wailed at his side.

“Don’t you see that these people are hurting?” the militant was asked.

“But I am from the people, too,” he said, his smile incandescent. “They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”
</blockquote

Gaza is occupied by a force that has no respect for human life. This force is based on a fanatical ideology that it can sacrifice its own women and children for the cause. It will also callously sacrifice its own elderly parents as well as any hope of a normal life. Its sole aim is to destroy its neighbours who want to live in peace. And it will commit the most criminal acts to remain in control. So who is this occupier of Gaza? Continue reading →