Israel is guilty of genocide? Hamas wants to kill or drive out every Jew in Israel. Its terrorists targeted, raped, mutilated and murdered thousands of Israeli civilians – and promise to repeat their massacres until Israel is gone. Campus mobs want to “Kill all Zionists.” That is genocide.
In sharp contrast, Israel goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, where Hamas built hundreds of miles of terror tunnels under its cities. Where Hamas hides its “militants” and weapons in virtually every home, apartment, school, hospital, mosque and office.
Where it actively “persuades” civilians to remain as human shields, to ensure high casualties. Where some families refuse to leave, even when warned of impending military actions. “We want to die. We love death the way you love life,” one family patriarch said.
That has meant destructive, deadly urban warfare. And yet civilian death tolls in Gaza are one-sixth those in other recent urban warzones.
A 2022 UN report concluded that 90% of wartime casualties were civilians in Afghanistan, Africa, Ukraine and the Middle East. That’s nine civilians for every combatant. Gaza tolls have been 1.5 civilians per combatant. Military experts like Col. Richard Kemp (U.K., Ret.) confirm this.
Using Hamas Health Ministry claims (up to 34,000 deaths through April) – and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims that it has killed over 12,000 Hamas fighters – the ratio is 1.8 civilians per fighter. But Hamas doesn’t separate terrorists from civilians killed by Israel, by Hamas rockets that exploded in Gaza or even deaths by natural causes. It classifies military-age men as children.