Een punt dat ik nog nergens anders ben tegen gekomen: een deel van de raketten die Hamas afvuurt komen niet in Israel maar in de Gazastrook zelf terecht, en hebben in het verleden voor doden gezorgd. De kans dat van de 500 raketten die Hamas de afgelopen dagen heeft afgevuurd diverse in de Gazastrook zijn geland en daar schade en wellicht doden hebben veroorzaakt, is dan ook reëel. Daarnaast wijst EoZ er op dat Hamas zijn wapens en explosieven in dicht bevolkt gebied opslaat, en dat de secundaire explosies na een Israelische hit vaak minstens even heftig zijn. De doden en gewonden na zo'n explosie zijn daarom mede, zo niet geheel, op Hamas' conto te schrijven. De media schrijven echter automatisch iedere dode in Gaza aan Israel toe. Hamas zelf heeft overigens ook vaker met de vinger naar Israel gewezen als door eigen onzorgvuldigheid een munitiedepot de lucht in ging.
Gaza terror groups have fired well over 340 rockets towards Israel since Wednesday - but how many of them exploded in Gaza?
The latest bimonthly Gaza NSO Safety Report notes that in the second half of October there were 59 rockets fired from northern Gaza towards Israel. Of those, eight of them fell short or exploded on the launch sites.
Historically, between 15-30% (sometimes even 40%) of Gaza rockets do not make it to Israel. And many Gazans have been killed or injured as a result of those misfirings. most recently with the death of 18 month old Hadeel Haddad last June and also the previous August.
And in both those cases, the lying Gaza government claimed that the deaths were due to Israeli airstrikes.
Similarly, in the Hamas rocket barrage that immediately preceded Cast Lead (that no one remembers), two girls were killed by a Qassam rocket. A UNRWA school was hit last December. And on and on.
If only 20% of the rockets fired now - very hurriedly - are landing in Gaza, that means that we can estimate over 65 rockets have fallen in Gaza over the past three days alone! And the number can easily be much higher.
How many killed people? How many leveled houses? How many injuries?
We'll never know, because Hamas will do everything they can to ensure that all deaths are blamed on Israel, just like they did with the death of Hadeel Haddad.
Similarly, look at the secondary explosions from this Israeli airstrike:
Israel is targeting munitions and rocket depots that are often hidden in civilian neighborhoods. The secondary explosions are often at least as large as the initial airstrike. So it is likely that shrapnel from these secondary explosions of Hamas munitions are responsible for injuries and deaths.
This means that before reporters automatically say that children are killed by Israeli missiles, they should verify the facts first. And if they cannot do that, they should say so. Because the chances are quite high that many of the civilians being killed are dying from terrorist rockets or munitions.