Pages

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Amazing Double Martyrs

Ma'an published an exclusive story detailing the "fact" that there are still many missing people from the Gaza operation presumed to be under rubble that has not been cleared.

While it is possible that there are still bodies in the rubble, Ma'an wants to add these missing people to the casualty count, to pad the total number killed. Even though the PCHR's list has 1314 people (of whom a few are duplicates of each other,) and the Palestinian Ministry of Health's list has 1352, Ma'an says"
At least 1,505 victims had been identified before Ma'an's investigation. From the Health Ministry's original list of 90 missing Palestinians, researchers determined that 31 of them have been found, identified and reburied.

The 59 Palestinians still thought to be missing are listed below, in order of age, along with the cities or areas in Gaza where they were last seen alive.

1. In'am Ra'fat Al-Masri, 12, Ash-Shati Refugee Camp
2. Abed Ar-Rahman Ahmad Al-A'tawnah, 15, Al-Faloja
3. Jihan Sami Al-Helu, 17, Al-Karama Tower
4. Ahmad Yousef Ibrahim Al-Batsh, 18, At-Tuffah
5. Sabrin Mohammed Abu Samaha, 18, Beit Lahiya
6. Jebreel A'teiyah Mansour (Abu Al-Hasna), 18, Ezbat Abed Rabu
7. Husein Sa'eed Abdallah An-Nuthur, 20, Ezbat Abed Rabu
...
The list of missing people is most interesting. Taking the first six of them, these "missing" people are already listed as killed by both PCHR and the PMoH.

As PTWatch noticed,
Maan #1 = PCHR #1372
Maan #2 = PCHR #1377
Maan #3 = PCHR #516
Maan #4 = PCHR #506
Maan #5 = PCHR #466
Maan #6 = PCHR #827

When I looked at the PMoH Arabic list I saw

Maan #1=PMoH #290
Maan #2=PMoH #54
Maan #3=PMoH #215
Maan #4=PMoH #73
Maan #5=PMoH #83
Maan #6=PMoH #792
Maan #7=PMoH #794

The pattern seems clear: these "missing" people have already been counted as dead for months.

I'm not certain about how much information is shared between the Gaza and Ramallah health ministries, but almost certainly Ramallah got its information from Gaza - and it includes where these "missing" people were killed, as does PCHR.

It sounds like the Gaza MoH and Ma'an are trying to pad the list of "martyrs" by counting dozens of people twice. Perhaps this is how the number of "martyrs" has gone up by nearly 200 since the war ended (the number who succumbed to injuries since the PCHR and PMoH lists were compiled that were reported in the Arabic press has been extremely low; I don't think I have seen more than five.)

Perhaps these "double martyrs" will qualify for 140 virgins now!