Now I Understand Why Israel Is Denying Journalists Access

[MixedMetals]

I hope the link works but this is a fascinating article in Haaretz from one of the only historians studying the Gaza Strip, Jean-Pierre Filiu. He spent a month there in Dec 2024 and describes what he saw in the Gaza Strip.

"Even though I have been in a number of war zones in the past, from Ukraine to Afghanistan, via Syria, Iraq and Somalia, I have never, but never, experienced anything like this… Now I understand why Israel is denying the international press access to such an appalling scene."

http://archive.today/hI0cA

Thankyou for that post. For those who read it it’s also worth opening up an excellent link on the number of deaths and why they fall far short of the 57,000 currently being cited. The figure discussed in the article is nearer 100,000 now. This number the article states still doesn’t account for everyone so is perhaps still being cautious in its analysis

Shocking read. It's worse, so much worse, than we know.

Makes you think - if this is the stuff that we do see imagine what we don't

Thanks for this. I hadn't clicked into it before. It certainly makes for sobering reading. It's hard to believe that a country with such an advanced military like Israel couldn't have controlled this better. It makes their claims that they are only targeting Hamas seem rather sketchy to put it mildly.

Data compiled and published by Spagat indicates that the proportion of women and children killed via a violent death in Gaza is more than double the proportion in almost every other recent conflict, including, for example, the civil wars in Kosovo (20 percent), northern Ethiopia (9 percent), Syria (20 percent), Colombia (21 percent), Iraq (17 percent) and Sudan (23 percent).

I found this information on Hamas fighters killed interesting too. They don't find Israels claims to have killed 20000 fighters at all credible.

"Based on an overwhelmingly consistent historical pattern," he says, "we know that [in general,] at least twice as many combatants will be wounded as killed. So if Israel says 20,000 have been killed, we assume at least 40,000 have been injured, and it doesn't make sense that Hamas had 60,000 militants."
Cockerill says that Israel is "engineering the combatants figure" by two main means. "One is by redefining civilians who work for the government as combatants, the other is 'kill zones,'" in which everyone who is killed is considered a combatant.
One way or the other, even if we accept the official figure, it still comes down to a ratio of four noncombatants killed for every Hamas militant. That's very far from the statements of Israeli spokespersons, who talk about a 1:1 proportion.

Conveniently manufacturing the figures doesn’t surprise me. It’s no wonder independent journalists aren’t allowed in

Palestinian journalist killed after Israeli drone strike targets his home

The Government Media office in the Gaza Strip has stated that Palestinian journalist Ahmed Salama Abu has been killed, bringing the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the war to 229

It’s like they have something to hide. Heavens knows what that might be?

Another direct target on an innocent journalist. Yet another war crime. When will these murders be called out for what they are

Witnesses who can testify and show any crimes that have been committed.

Part of the reason Palestinians have to "livestream" their destruction is that they won't be believed.

P.s. thankfully there are people outside of Palestine that are geolocating, recording and downloading all the evidence (videos, pictures, testimonials, Israeli participants). Last I read they have several terabytes stored in different locations.

I read about him, I think he;s been going to Gaza for years & speaks Arabic. It's surprising Hamas let him in given that he has been quite critical of them...

"Opposition to Hamas had already been very strong in Gaza for many years, due to the rejection of the authoritarianism and cronyism of the Islamist movement. The elections scheduled for 2021 would have resulted in a resounding defeat for Hamas at the polls in Gaza, but the United States and the European Union agreed to let the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah postpone these elections indefinitely to keep President Mahmoud Abbas at the head of the PA. It is, in my view, unquestionable that Hamas, through its terrorist campaign of October 7, 2023, was also seeking to strengthen its grip on Gaza's population, who would pay the heaviest price for the Israeli reprisals. Gaza's residents use the term "drones" to describe the Hamas men enforcing "order" in the enclave. Their favorite punishment is shooting their opponents in the kneecaps. Gaza was recently the scene of popular, spontaneous protests against Hamas, which managed to suppress this unprecedented dissent due to the continuation, and even intensification, of Israeli bombings"

I'm not sure if his take is the truth, but if it is and Hamas was losing it's grip, I think that is very good news for the people. It's interesting that his view is that they committed 7 October as a way to strengthen their grip. I'm not sure how?

Horrifying. No words really.

Medical sources in Gaza say two Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli airstrikes today, bringing the total number of media workers killed since Israel began its assault on the enclave to more than 230.