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New IDF Figures: 700 Hamas Terrorists Killed in Gaza Operation

[CNN] The Israeli military said Thursday that the "vast majority" of Palestinians killed in the recent Gaza conflict were "terror operatives" and the number of people killed was less than Palestinian sources reported. The Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office claimed their figures contained the names of 1,166 Palestinians killed in the conflict, with 709 of them "identified as Hamas terror operatives, among them several from various other terror organizations." There were also 162 names who "have not yet been attributed to any organization." "Furthermore, it has come to our understanding that 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation, 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them were women." "The Hamas terror organization placed the primary fighting scene at the heart of civilian neighborhoods as it booby-trapped homes, fired from schools and used civilians as human shields," the IDF said. The IDF released the findings to counter "false information originating from various Palestinian sources, and in order to remove any doubt regarding the number of Palestinians killed." The numbers differ sharply from those reported by Palestinian sources. The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza put the death toll at over 1,300, with the majority made up of non-combatants. Asked about the discrepancies, an Israeli military official suggested that naturally occurring deaths in Gaza had been included in the Palestinian death toll numbers.
2009-03-27 06:00:00
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