Neither Hamas, nor Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist leaders, nor their Iranian sponsors really care how many Palestinians are killed in Gaza. For strategic military reasons, they may momentarily regret their terrorist militants’ deaths. But they perceive the dead as beneficially sacrificed to achieve their main objectives – to demonize Israel and make it an international pariah and gain support for accomplishing their ultimate goals: Israel’s total destruction and the murder of the largest possible number of Israelis and Jews.
In their world, Palestinian deaths are celebrated as deceased martyrs, and exploited and denounced to depict Israel as the evil aggressor intent on Palestinian genocide. The fact that both Palestinian groups are death cults that value death over life is something too many in the West have difficulty understanding. Many also forget or choose to ignore, that Hamas initiated the current conflict on October 7 and has promised to repeat that day’s atrocities.
In the global propaganda war, the terrorists’ narrative is winning. Film of the destruction in Gaza, of the dead and the injured, and daily publication by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry of the total number of Gaza dead since October 7 has dramatically impacted public perception across the globe, including in the EU and US.
Initially, Israel was widely perceived as the victim of a savage massacre and barbaric atrocities. But IDF actions in Gaza to dismantle Hamas, rescue hostages, and protect Israelis from future promised barbarism have resulted in Israel being wrongly perceived by too many as the malign terrorizer of Palestinians and responsible for indefensible deaths, devastation, and a humanitarian disaster.
At this writing, the total number of Palestinian dead claimed by Hamas’s Health Ministry exceeds 28,000. While Hamas on social media depicts the heroism of its fighters, Hamas’s published statistics of those killed deliberately do not distinguish between dead combatant terrorists and innocent civilians. Israel estimates the former as approximately 10,000.
While some media outlets mention that the statistics of Palestinian dead and wounded are unverified, and hint that the numbers may be unreliable, most have long ceased doing so. All the Palestinian deaths reported by Hamas are wrongly presented by international bodies, politicians, and news organizations as innocents mercilessly murdered by Israel.
Dual narratives
This is the narrative of both speakers and protesters in the many weekly anti-Israel protests and marches. It is the narrative popularized within many universities by both academics and students, and by many pro-Palestinian NGOs – inciting escalating global antisemitism.
It is the narrative consumed by, and influencing, how several governments perceive and react to the conflict. It is contaminating the perspective of Israel’s most supportive ally, the Biden administration. It is the narrative dominating discussions, decisions, and actions by various international bodies, including the UN. Others, including the International Court of Justice, wrongly use Hamas’s statistics of the total dead to verify as “plausible” the allegation that Israel is engaged in genocide.
Israeli initiatives to encourage civilians to move from areas of conflict are misrepresented as a war crime and not recognized as intended to minimize civilian casualties. Israel is damned, no matter what it does.
Many Israeli initiatives to protect Palestinian civilians since the commencement of the current conflict – which totally undermine the spurious genocide allegation – are wrongly ignored by those to whom they are inconvenient. So is Hamas’s deliberate use of Palestinians as human shields for its terrorist militants and infrastructure.
However, it is also wrong to ignore the possibility that IDF missile strikes and military actions may result in the deaths of civilians in areas where Gazans have been encouraged to evacuate. This would also lend public credibility to the genocide claim.
An all-out assault on Hamas in Rafah, with its estimated population of 1.3 million, would result in a substantial additional number of civilian casualties and do further damage to Israel. Few will hold Hamas responsible for such deaths. Biden is right to require that credible plans be implemented there to minimize civilian casualties. Damage also results from the reckless ideological and brainless messianic rhetoric, and social media posts, of right-wing extremist members of Israel’s current government.
For those who understand Israel’s need to permanently end Hamas’s brutal rule of Gaza, afford Israelis security, rescue all hostages, and end fears of a repeat of October 7, the difficult truth is that not all Palestinian civilian deaths can be attributed to collateral damage for which Israel has no moral responsibility.
The second difficult truth is that while it may be possible to end Hamas governance in Gaza, rule by an alternative administration requires the active engagement and cooperation of others. Care is required to ensure that what is done during days of conflict does not sabotage what can be achieved in the days after.
The third difficult truth is that there is no such thing as total victory. Even if Hamas’s rule in Gaza ends, it will continue to exist. History teaches that Palestinian deaths in this war will inevitably spawn future atrocities and terrorist attacks.
Palestinians in Gaza have nowhere else to go and ultimately, there has to be a permanent political settlement. How to get there is the problem in the context of Hamas and the current Israeli government’s total opposition to any form of a two-state solution. Recent polls indicate that such a solution is currently only favored by a minority of Israelis.
As in all wars, dreadful incidents have resulted in the deaths of innocent Gazan men, women, and children. The terrible injuries have caused international revulsion and criticism. Many in Israel have little sympathy for the civilian deaths and injuries in Gaza and have given little attention to them. They are understandably consumed by grief for the loss of loved ones and IDF soldiers, revolted by the atrocities of October 7, concerned for the fate of hostages, and fearful of further Hamas atrocities.
The conclusion of the conflict, the passage of time, and the opportunity for reflection will inevitably result in some introspection and difficult questions that have to be addressed.
There can be little doubt that Hamas and its Iranian masters are celebrating the current conflict as a substantial tactical success, which has damaged Israel’s reputation, disrupted Israel’s normalization engagement with countries in the region, undermined Israelis sense of security, and distracted global attention from their own atrocities and barbarism. Regardless of how this terrible war ends, there will be no total victory for either side.
The writer is a former Irish justice and defense minister, a former chairperson of the Irish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and a fellow of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations.