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Palestinian "Policemen" Killed in Gaza Operation Were Trained Terrorists
[Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs] Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi - After international human rights organizations accused Israel of killing innocent Palestinian "traffic policemen" during the Gaza operation, a detailed investigation shows that a decisive majority of the Palestinian "policemen" were members of the military wings of the Palestinian terror organizations and fighters who had undergone military training. Among the 343 members of the Palestinian security forces who were killed, 286 have been identified as terror organization members (83%). Another 27 fighters belonging to units undergoing infantry training raises this total to 313 (91%). In the Dec. 27, 2008 attack on an officer training course at Gaza police headquarters, 89 dead were counted. Of these, 60 (67%) belonged to Hamas and almost all were members of its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. The total number of terror activists and fighters among those killed at police headquarters was 81 (91%). The human rights organizations which reported on Palestinian casualties in Gaza failed to mention the affiliation of hundreds of Palestinian security personnel who were members of terrorist organizations and who were trained fighters, thus artificially inflating the list of "civilians" killed by the IDF. The writer, research director for the Orient Research Group and a research fellow of the Jerusalem Center, previously served as a senior adviser for political planning in Israel's Foreign Ministry and as head of the data and information branch in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.