Complied by Malcolm Evans
Two weeks after the Hamas breakout assault on Israel on 7 October, Robert Inlakesh, reporting for The Cradle, says a clearer picture of what happened – who died, and who killed – is now beginning to emerge.
Instead of the wholescale massacre of civilians claimed by Israel, incomplete figures published by the respected Hebrew newspaper Haaretz, show that almost half the Israelis killed that day were in fact combatants – soldiers or police and that Israeli forces were in fact responsible for the deaths of the many civilian Israelis who died. And, says Haaretz, the Israeli government spread false “atrocity stories” to justify the revenge atrocities it planned to commit on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is now underway.
For the complete Haaretz account of what happened on October 7th and in its aftermath, including the testimony of an elderly Israeli hostage in which she says she was treated respectfully, click here.
Describing the way Hamas treated the hostages, Mrs Lifshitz said: “They were very friendly towards us. They took care of us. We were given medicine and we were treated. One of the men with us was badly injured in a motorbike accident. Their (Hamas) paramedics looked after his wounds, he was given medicine and antibiotics. The people were friendly. They kept the place very clean, They were very concerned about us.”
By contrast Haaretz reports, the destruction that took place at the Kibbutz Be’eri, which resulted in the deaths of many Israeli civilians, could only have been caused by tanks and other heavy artillery, which only the Israeli forces had at their disposal. And as evidence of this, Yasmin Porat, a survivor from Kibbutz Be’eri, told Haaretz “Israeli forces eliminated everyone, including the hostages.”
Accounts of the Israeli death toll have been filtered and shaped to suggest that a wholesale civilian massacre occurred that day, with babies, children, and women the main targets of a terror attack.
Now, detailed statistics on the casualties released by the Israeli daily Haaretz paint a starkly different picture. As of 23 October, the news outlet has released information on 683 Israelis killed during the Hamas-led offensive, including their names and locations of their deaths on 7 October.
Of these, 331 casualties – or 48.4 percent – have been confirmed to be soldiers and police officers, many of them female. Another 13 are described as rescue service members, and the remaining 339 are ostensibly considered to be civilians.
While this list is not comprehensive and only accounts for roughly half of Israel’s stated death toll, almost half of those killed in the melee are clearly identified as Israeli combatants.
There are also, so far, no recorded deaths of children under the age of three, which throws into question the Israeli narrative that babies were targeted by Palestinian resistance fighters. Of the 683 total casualties reported thus far, seven were between the ages of 4 and 7, and nine between the ages of 10 and 17. The remaining 667 casualties appear to be adults.
The Hamas plan
There is little to no credible evidence that Palestinian fighters either planned, or deliberately sought to kill or harm unarmed Israeli civilians on 7 October. From the available footage, we witness them engaging primarily with armed Israeli forces, accounting for the deaths of hundreds of occupation soldiers. As Qassam Brigades’ Spokesman Abu Obeida made clear on 12 October:
“Al-Aqsa Flood operation aimed to destroy the Gaza Division (an Israeli army unit on Gaza’s borders) which was attacked at 15 points, followed by attacking 10 further military intervention points. We attacked the Zikim site and several other settlements outside the Gaza Division headquarters.”
Abu Obeida and other resistance officials claims that the other key objective of their operation was to take Israeli prisoners that they could exchange for the approximately 5,300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention centers, many of whom are women and children.
Malcolm – Truth is important during wartime, shame that many media outlets are repeating Hamas talking points
Shame that you are spreading racist Zionist propaganda that is being used to justify genocide.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=6001626663273512&ref=sharing
Pat O’Dea – Genocide? Hamas stated goal is to wipe out Israelis…Hamas wiped out Fatah by shooting/bombing/burning them out of Gaza in 2007..
“Hamas wiped out Fatah by shooting/bombing/burning them out of Gaza in 2007.” Nathan
The truth is somewhat different.
Fatah launched an armed insurrection against the legally elected Hamas government of Gaza but was defeated.
Hamas had won the election in a surprise result and to the dismay of the Israelis, Fatah tried to overturn the result with force of arms with Israeli support.
What is often not acknowledged is that Hamas also won the elections in the West Bank as well as Gaza. But Fatah with Israeli support was able to hold onto their rule.
The recent huge protests against the war in Gaza held in the West Bank were not directed at the Israelis but against Fatah.
Fatah has been undermined and infiltrated and riddled with Israeli spies and informers and seen as hopelessly corrupt.
If an election were held today in the West Bank, Fatah would be thrown out of office and replaced with Hamas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative_election
Evans has such respect for the truth he censors comments like a good selective antisemitic lefty.
@ nathan. You were awake at 6.11AM to write something and that’s it? A lonely Pro Genocide brain fart? Really? You’re either paid far too much to spread the dis-ease the MSM do for free or not enough to look like an idiot.
“the testimony of an elderly Israeli hostage in which she says she was treated respectfully, click here.”
This link seemed to take me to a list of Israeli dead.
“Instead of the wholescale massacre of civilians claimed by Israel, incomplete figures published by the respected Hebrew newspaper Haaretz, show that almost half the Israelis killed that day were in fact combatants – soldiers or police ”
So if we accept that, you need to accept that half of them weren’t
“There is little to no credible evidence that Palestinian fighters either planned, or deliberately sought to kill or harm unarmed Israeli civilians on 7 October.”
And as you weren’t there you have absolutely no idea what their plans were. I think in court they call this conjecture.
You have your own opinion and that is fine, we all do. But please don’t pretend to be objective.
“You have your own opinion and that is fine, we all do. But please don’t pretend to be objective.”
Ok, but I wonder if you make the same plea whenever the occasions arise that you read the alternative viewpoint.
I do try to read what others say and keep an open mind while being honest enough to admit my own biases. For example I am incredibly against the Russian invasion of Ukraine while at the same time recognising that Ukraine are not exactly innocent. I don’t tend to view the world in black and white as so many seem to these days.
The title of this article was ‘in wartime truth is so precious” and yet it seems to me the author is selective in his statements.
Perhaps a more honest title would have been “Why I think Israel are the bad guys”.
I wholeheartedly agree.
(I had to ask, as we do get a lot of trolls in here).
“Perhaps a more honest title would have been “Why I think Israel are the bad guys”.”
Whoops, I missed that.
No. That’s just as misleading as the target of your complaints.
Perhaps “reporting that you may not otherwise get to hear”.
Ok that’s fair. I’ll buy that.
and the dead babies and children were ‘combatents’ joe?
Not sure what you mean. I never said or implied that they were or weren’t. I merely said that if Malcolm said that half of the victims were combatants then he also had to accept that the other half weren’t
Obviously, you don’t watch Al Jazerra Neihana
covid is pa – ah, Al Jazerra the almost official mouthpiece of Hamas…situated in Qatar, the same place where the Senior Leadership of Hamas are.
Al Jazerra, especially Al Jazerra English, is more in tune with US interests than Hamas interests, remembering of course, that one of the largest, if not the largest US military base in the Middle East, is located in Qatar. As for the Hamas presence in Qatar, think this little article spells out the easily explained reason for this…
“Qatar open to reconsidering Hamas presence in Qatar, US official says” – https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-told-us-it-is-open-reconsidering-hamas-presence-us-official-says-2023-10-27/
Shame that you are spreading racist Zionist propaganda that is being used to justify genocide.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=6001626663273512&ref=sharing
What genocide? Hamas make clear in their Charter that genocide of Jews everywhere, not just in Israel, is their goal. You can bandy loaded words about as much as you want, but the fact remains that Palestinians have septupled their population since 1948. Jews are 6 million down and still fighting existential threats. Hamas inflicted on peaceful Jewish civilians the worst atrocities since the Holocaust, which incidentally the Palestinians supported and now deny. Never again.
“The Secret History of Israel’s Role in Genocide in Colombia”
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/10/27/the-secret-history-of-israels-role-in-genocide-in-colombia/
“Zionist Think Tank Publishes Blueprint for Palestinian Genocide”
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/zionist-think-tank-publishes-blueprint-for-palestinian-genocide/
“What Really Happened on October 7th? Evidence Contradicts Zionist Propaganda
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/what-really-happened-on-october-7th-evidence-countradicts-zionist-propaganda/
“October 7 Testimonies Reveal Israel’s Military ‘Shelling’ Israeli Citizens with Tanks, Missiles”
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/10/27/october-7-testimonies-reveal-israels-military-shelling-israeli-citizens-with-tanks-missiles/
“Israeli targets journalists, kills their families as Big Tech & Biden admin silence Palestinians”
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israeli-assassinates-journalists-big-tech-biden-palestinians/
Human Rights Watch
” A Threshold Crossed
Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution ” (2021)
https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
Need to point out that Robert Inlakesh lost family recently in this struggle.
I hope you have all read that great Jewish academics book: The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé.
Oh I am sure Gaby will believe that this Jewish man is anti-semtic because criticism of Israel is never ever allowed.
How your youth, child mentality, goin to block my knowing,, not only border, but union home care, how these ballance of control,bE will they fuck us. Union, care, in aotearoa, is going,, what diffrence, lets bomb, those who we choose. These, trio, win loose, is the same shit, they are bringing to the productive workers, with their casual, minum wage, and blame.
In WW1 Allied propaganda accused German soldiers of throwing Belgium babies into the air and catching them on their bayonets.
Joe Biden president of the US accused Hamas decapitating Israeli babies, and claimed he had seen proof.
What’s the truth?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxGDRJJ9avw
The October 7 Hamas incursion was bloody and horrific, but no less horrific and bloody than the thousands of Israeli incursions into Gaza and the Westbank.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zw1l3
An 18-month-old Palestinian boy has burned to death after settlers set fire to his family house in Duma village, south of Nablus city, in the occupied West Bank.