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Hamas Admits 700 Palestinian Fighters Were Killed in Gaza War

(Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center) On Nov. 1, Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad told the London-based Al-Hayat: "On the first day of the war Israel struck police headquarters and killed 250 members of Hamas and the various factions, in addition to the 200-300 operatives from the al-Qassam Brigades. In addition, 150 security personnel were killed." The overall number is consistent with the findings of the Israeli defense establishment, which reported 1,166 Palestinians killed. 609 were Hamas terrorist operatives and security forces. One hundred more were operatives from other terrorist organizations, so that the overall number of terrorist operatives killed was 709 (about 60% of the total number of deaths). During and after the war, Hamas employed a policy of hiding the real number of its operatives killed by the IDF. The policy was implemented to prevent demoralization and to reinforce the (false) message that Israel was deliberately directing its military actions against civilians. Reducing the number of terrorist operatives killed and greatly exaggerating the number of civilians killed served Hamas in dealing with the Goldstone Commission. The Hamas policy of hiding the actual number of Hamas operatives killed outlived its usefulness after the Goldstone Report was issued. The Goldstone Report states that according to the Palestinian NGO statistics, only one of every five casualties was a "combatant" [20% - instead of the actual 60%].
2010-11-05 09:45:43
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