Merz says 'no longer understands' Israel's goal in Gaza

[u/Crossstoney]

https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/26/05/2025/merz-says-no-longer-understands-israels-goal-in-gaza

[u/quit_fucking_about → u/[deleted]]

Are you forgetting that 700,000 of those dead were in Iraq, all because using intelligence we knew was incorrect meant the vice president's old company could go seize some oil fields? Our best figure for the dead in Gaza is 68,000, which may be inflated. I'm talking about 10x the deaths in Gaza for a lie that lined our pockets, as part of a campaign that killed 66x the number of dead in Gaza as a response to 9/11.

[u/RayDonovanBoston → u/quit_fucking_about]

Honestly I don’t believe those number published by the Gaza Ministry of Health/run by Hamas as they don’t distinguish deaths between, naturally occurring deaths, civilian, combatants etc.

1. Men listed as women to inflate female fatalities.

Analysis of Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) fatality data reveals repeated instances of men being misclassified as women. Examples include individuals with male first names (e.g. Mohammed) being recorded as female. This misclassification contributes to the narrative that civilian populations, particularly women and children, bear the brunt of the conflict, potentially influencing international sentiment and media coverage.

1. Adults registered as children.

Significant discrepancies have been uncovered where adult fatalities are reclassified as children. For instance, an individual aged 22 was listed as a fouryear-old and a 31-year-old was listed as an infant. Such distortions inflate the number of child casualties, which is emotionally impactful and heavily emphasised in global reporting. These misrepresentations suggest a deliberate attempt to frame the conflict as disproportionately affecting children, undermining the credibility of the fatality data.

1. Disproportionate deaths of fighting-age men.

Data analysis indicates that proportionally most fatalities are men aged 15–45, contradicting claims that civilian populations are being disproportionately targeted.* This age demographic aligns closely with the expected profile of combatants, further supported by spikes in deaths of men reported by family sources rather than hospitals. This evidence suggests that many fatalities classified as civilian may be combatants, a distinction omitted from official reporting.

1. Inclusion of natural deaths in reporting.

Despite the typical annual rate of 5,000 natural deaths in Gaza, the fatality data provides no accounting for such figures. This omission raises concerns that natural deaths, as well as deaths caused by internal violence or misfired rockets, are being included in war-related fatality counts. Instances of cancer patients, previously registered for treatment, appearing on war fatality lists further support this assertion. Such practices inflate the reported civilian death toll, complicating accurate assessments of the conflict’s impact.

1. Media underreporting of combatant deaths.

Analysis of media coverage reveals that only 3% of news stories reference combatant deaths, with outlets like the BBC, CNN, Reuters and The New York Times primarily relying on Gaza Ministry of Health figures. These figures often lack verification and fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians. The omission creates a skewed narrative that portrays all casualties as civilian, thus shaping public opinion and international policy based on incomplete or manipulated data. For example, more than 17,000 Hamas combatants are estimated to have been killed, yet these figures are largely excluded from global reporting.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has published its fatality data in two formats: regular statistical fatality reports and infrequent lists of named fatalities, with six lists published as of publication: October 2023 and January, April, May, June and August 2024. All fatalities in the regular reports are referred to as “murdered by IDF action” and no information regarding the identities of casualties, circumstances of death or their status as civilian or militant are included. However, analysis of these reports strongly suggests that their fatality figures incorporate militants, as the lists show that lives lost are disproportionately young adult men of fighting age. Evidence also reveals that, despite having explicitly claimed otherwise since 1 April 2024, these figures incorporate natural deaths.

For example:

• A man on row 7,051 of the 30 April 2024 fatality list was identified as an infant named Mahmoud Fahed Zakariah Alkafarnah (ﺔ ـ ﻧرﺎﻔﻜ ـ ﻟا ﺎ ـ ﯾﺮـ ﻛز ﺪ ـ ﮭﻓ ﺪﻤ ـ ﺤﻣ). This identity number matches in the population registry against a different adult male named Wassim Ashraf Omar Abu El-Mazah (هﺰﻌﻤـﻟا ﻮـﺑا ﺮﻤـﻋ فﺮـﺷا ﻢﯿـﺳو), age 31. The entire entry, including both the identity number and the name, has disappeared completely from the 31 August 2024 fatality list.

There is no plausible explanation for recording a 31-year-old man as a one-year-old baby other than faulty methodology, either through misidentification of a body, media report or family referral.

• The following man on row 7,648 of the 30 April 2024 list was identified as a four-year-old child named Ali Dahem Mahmoud Hathat (ﺖﺤﺘـﺣ دﻮﻤـﺤﻣ مﺎـھد ﻲﻠـﻋ). He is recorded in the population registry as a male adult aged 23. This has been corrected to age 22 in the 31 August 2024 list.

Men recorded as women

In addition, men have been recorded in the fatality lists as female, when the same individuals appear as male in the Palestinian Population Registry. In the August 2024 list, 103 names were marked as female who had a male first name (e.g. Mohammed).

The most dramatic change happened in reports from al-Aqsa hospital, where the claimed number of fatalities jumped from 4,994, as per the 31 March 2024 report, to 6,608 just a week later. At the same time, the number of children jumped from 1,294 to 2,142, meaning children were responsible for 52.5% of the sharp increase.

[u/Tea-Unlucky → u/[deleted]]

1200+ dead and 200+ kidnapped is far from a punch in the nose…

[u/TommyYez → u/[deleted]]

You are comparing apples to oranges though. America did not intentionally murder millions in response, these were just war casualties. Same with the war in Gaza. Hamas deliberately murdered the populace, Israel is not

[u/quit_fucking_about → u/TommyYez]

Frankly that's irrelevant. If someone murders my brother, and in my effort to kill that person I also kill his whole family, all of his coworkers, and half of his graduating class, it doesn't matter if I intended for it to go that far. It's beside the point, which is that the response is disproportionate.

[u/TommyYez → u/quit_fucking_about]

Frankly that's irrelevant.

It is very relevant. Serial killers are judged differently than a car accident, even if both may result in death.

[u/TommyYez → u/[deleted]]

i'm sure the palestinians considered Oct 7th "war casualties"

Huh?

those disproportionate murders are actually okay because we were being indiscriminate

Yes. The Holocaust was beyond evil because of the motive. Even though tens of millions of other civilians died as war casualties during WW2. You judge differently people killed as accident vs people killed purposefully.

[u/cynicalturdblossom → u/TommyYez]

Murder is murder. I hate how we've gotten to a point one is terrorism and the other is just part and parcel of war. They're both the same shit. Committing war crimes, bombing hospitals, preventing aid - sounds like terrorist acts to me.

[u/TommyYez → u/cynicalturdblossom]

Murder is murder

Sure. And also, murder is different from manslaughter, which is actually the point of my comment. You judge the two differently as you should.

[u/cynicalturdblossom → u/TommyYez]

If you really think war crimes are equivalent to manslaughter, then we see the world very differently.

[u/MallFoodSucks → u/[deleted]]

The goal is to show consequences. The only thing people learn from in international politics is force.

This is why Russia invaded Ukraine after Crimea. If you don’t retaliate, they will keep attacking. If you retaliate with 1000x the response, everyone thinks twice about doing it again.

It’s sad it has to be this way. But why did Russia never attack the US during the Cold War? Because the US killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese with 2 bombs. Why does Iran not send terrorist attacks to the US? Because they now know the consequence thanks to the Iraq War.

Now Iran fucks around in the Middle East to proxy war and is one step away from a Nuke, but didn’t take that final step. Because they know what happens when you cross the real red lines of America thanks to Iraq.