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Israel challenges Palestinian claim on Gaza war dead
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press
Tags: Israel News, IDF, Hamas, Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday disputed Palestinian claims that most of the people killed in the recent Gaza Strip war were civilians, claiming the vast majority of the dead were Hamas militants.

An army spokeswoman said Thursday that the military had completed an investigation and determined that a total of 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the operation. It found that 709 were Hamas militants, while 295 were civilians, including 89 minors and 49 women. It was unclear whether another 162 men who died were militants or civilians.
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"We have a list of names. We have based our conclusions on a number of sources, including Palestinian sources and intelligence sources of different kinds," said Maj. Avital Leibovich.


The figures clashed with numbers released last week by the Palestine Center
for Human Rights, which said 1,417 people were killed, including more than 900 civilians. Its toll included the names and ages of all of the dead.

It should be noted that the IDF's figures are also different from those given on Wednesday by the Defense Ministry, which said that more than 1,370 Palestinians, including at least 309 non-combatants, were killed during Operation Cast Lead.

The Palestinian center Thursday called the Israeli report a deliberately manipulative attempt to distort the reality of the offensive and to disguise Israel's illegal actions. It said, for instance, that Israel wrongly classified 255 noncombatant police officers killed at the outset of the war as militants.

The heavy civilian death toll caused an international outcry and fueled calls from human rights groups for a war crimes investigation against Israel.

The military's report was unlikely to resolve the debate over the death toll. While Leibovich said the army's information was checked, crisscrossed and double-checked with the different intelligence bodies in Israel, the army did not provide its list of names.

When asked to explain the discrepancy, she said "you have to ask your Palestinian sources" and acknowledged it was not a precise science.

"We are receiving different information from different sources, the majority of which is not based on hard evidence," she said. "I can tell you for a fact that our information is checked according to different intelligence organizations and Palestinian authorities and these are the right figures."

Israel waged the war in Gaza in an attempt to weaken Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, and halt persistent rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli border towns.

Israel blames Hamas for the heavy civilian casualties, saying the group launches attacks from schools and residential areas and uses civilians as human shields to deter Israeli attacks.

Related articles:
  • IDF: 600 Hamas men, 309 civilians died in Gaza offensive
  • IDF to probe troops' testimony on civilian deaths during Gaza war
  • How many Palestinians were killed?


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      1.   Israel challenges Palestinian claim 01:17  |  WHG 27/03/09
      2.   IDF count of Gazan caualties 01:35  |  Le Corbeau 27/03/09
      3.   A bad "joke" - IDF says 1,166 killed and ministry says 1370 03:08  |  Petteri 27/03/09
      4.   Israel and the mother of all embarrassments....... 03:33  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/03/09
      5.   Swiss (Dino) Figures advanced by Israel are to show Palestinian 05:14  |  Benois 27/03/09
      6.   Criticize Israel, but NEVER CRITICIZE HAARETZ 05:22  |  Steve 27/03/09
      7.   For Whom the Siren Sounds: Sderot`s Injured 05:26  |  Steve 27/03/09
      8.   Iranian Roulette 05:28  |  Steve 27/03/09
      9.   Habeus Corpus 06:28  |  Mark of Lewiston 27/03/09
      10.   Why believe the IDF? 06:44  |  MichaelF 27/03/09
      11.   Ahhhhhh, depressing tho it is, this is as I expected..... 08:19  |  Johnboy 27/03/09
      12.   LE CORBEAU speak for yourself,the Jenin count lie by the Pals 08:34  |  PETER SM 27/03/09
      13.   #5 Benios, grab a calculator 08:37  |  Johnboy 27/03/09
      14.   #3 Petteri, do you want to know something REALLY laughable? 08:50  |  Johnboy 27/03/09
      15.   WHGFiring thousands of missiles into Israel,then fighting amongst 09:30  |  PETER SM 27/03/09
      16.   For those who wish to compare apples with apples 10:03  |  Johnboy 27/03/09
      17.   Ha`aretz are you incompetent to come up with your own estimations 10:18  |  arthur 27/03/09
      18.   The ever improving statistics 10:28  |  Mark Lincoln 27/03/09
      19.   Gaza war dead. 10:47  |  David Nigel Braham 27/03/09
      20.   PCHR Data serves Israeli Hasbara just fine! 11:06  |  Gil 27/03/09
      21.   PCHR Data serves Israeli Hasbara just fine! 11:18  |  Gil 27/03/09
      22.   And sinking... 22:26  |  Colin Wright 27/03/09
      23.   To Gil - Please Help Would Like To Discuss Numbers 23:36  |  Eli 27/03/09
      24.   @9, mark of lew. 10:17  |  v 28/03/09
      25.   WHG, feel better? 10:46  |  yonatan 28/03/09
      26.   Dear Eli 12:38  |  Gil 28/03/09
      27.   Dear Eli 12:39  |  Gil 28/03/09
      28.   Even the Civilians Were Guilty 14:37  |  UsedToPostHere 28/03/09
      29.   Those stupid Jews and their bombshelters 16:27  |  steve from raleigh 28/03/09
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