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Casualties in the 2021 Gaza War: How Many and Who Were They?

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Eli Nirenberg and Lenny Ben-David - During the 2021 Gaza War, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) concluded, "at least 253 Palestinians have been killed, 129 of whom were civilians." That means 124 of the dead were combatants, close to a 1:1 ratio, an unprecedentedly low ratio in terms of civilians killed in urban warfare. At least 680 Palestinian rockets fell short or misfired, landing inside Gaza. According to the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 9 children and 10 adults were killed by Palestinian rockets. Hamas is known to blur the lines between those who died of natural causes and those who died in the war. About 16 Gazans die of natural causes each day. Since Hamas tightly censors information, it is difficult to know if some natural deaths were falsely attributed to deaths from the conflict, especially during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, some of those executed by Hamas as spies and collaborators with Israel may also be included in the civilian casualty toll. Eli Nirenberg is a student at Washington University in St. Louis. Lenny Ben-David served 25 years in senior posts in AIPAC in Washington and Jerusalem, and as Israel's Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington.
2021-07-29 00:00:00
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