2008, 2009 PalArab self-death updates

My self-death count has had a lot of guesswork since the beginning of Cast Lead, and I based a lot on a Jerusalem Post article that claimed 35 had been killed as of January 4th. Since then there have been a number of attempts to catalogue the dead, and I believe now that the JPost numbers were a bit high. I try to make sure my numbers are accurate. My rule had been, whenever possible, to only count deaths with names attached to them and I had been bothered that the 35 mentioned in the JPost never panned out.

The PCHR just published (in Arabic only so far) the most comprehensive list of those killed in infighting since Cast Lead began. According to its numbers some 16 were killed in 2008 and 16 more in 2009. I adjusted the 2008 numbers accordingly (adding 10) and I included the 16 in the 2009 numbers, plus two more in the West Bank.

As far as I can tell, all the ones I had specified were on the PCHR list, including the former B'Tselem worker; they also included some more recent ones I had missed, including a 7-year old girl killed by "misuse of weapons." And this list includes far more dead than earlier lists published by Fatah and another human rights org in Gaza.

For now, I am treating these numbers as accurate.