PCHR's Other Lies

We've already demonstrated conclusively that literally hundreds of people that the PCHR called "civilian" casualties of Operation Cast Lead were, in fact, terrorists. (And the incredible team of t34zakat, PTWatch and Suzanne are still finding more.)

The problem is not only that PCHR was unaware of these people's affiliations. PCHR's weekly reports during Cast Lead detail a number of specific incidents that show that the organization knew quite well that the dead were terrorists - and chose to categorize them as "civilian" anyway.

For example:

#1294 in PCHR's casualty list, Naser Yusif Abdul Hadi al-Siefi, was listed in the weekly PCHR report as follows:

At approximately 17:00, the IOF artillery fired at a number of Palestinians, including a resistance activist, in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood. As a result, a civilian and a resistance activist were killed:

1. Hashem Rabah al-Hatu, 45, a civilian; and

2. Nasser al-Saifi, 38, a resistance activist.

Not only does this show that it is likely that al-Saifi was engaged in hostilities at the time, it also indicates that the civilian killed was probably unavoidable.

In the same report, PCHR writes:

In the evening, medical crews found the bodies of two activists of the Palestinian resistance in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. They were killed during the IOF incursion into the area. The two were identified as:

1. Mohammed Nawaf Na'im, 24; and

2. 'Abdullah Nawaf Na'im, 19.

Two known terrorists' bodies were found, no civilians with them.

Keep in mind that the actual number of members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups were about 20,000, in a population of some 1.5 million. That means that one in every 75 Gazans were terrorists. If Israel was shooting at random groups of people, we would expect that only about 1/75 of the dead would be terrorists, or only about 19 of them (rather than the 654 terrorists and police we've identified.)

The odds are extraordinarily low (about one in 5625) that Israel bombed Gaza randomly and killed two people who happened to be terrorists with no other casualties. Yet PCHR, who spent lots of time "researching" the circumstances of the deaths of everyone in their list, referred to both of these people as "civilians" (#1216 and #1317)

Another example:

During IOF ground incursion into Tal al-Hawa neighborhood that continued until 07:00 on Friday, 16 January 2009, ten members of the Palestinian resistance were killed. The dead are: Hamdi Ibrahim al-Banna, 23; Medhat 'Abed Ali Bannar, 24; Na'im Khader Hamada, 20; Mahmoud Khader Abu Salem, 19; 'Ammar Maher Farawana, 18; Farid Hejazi al-Hilu, 23; Mu'taz Abdul Muttaleb Dahman, 21; Hussam Hassan al-'AmaSsi, 35; Rebhi Shuhaibar, 25; and Tamer Faza'a, 20.

For some reason, PCHR called Bannar a "civilian" in their casualty list (#1213) while the rest of them were "militants." Yet Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Ministry of Health also categorized Bannar as a "militant."

Even more curious is this case:

At approximately 17:10, an IOF drone fired a missile at a motorcycle in Bani Suhaila village. Ra'fat Khalil Hamdan Abu al-'Ola, 47, who was riding the motorcycle, was killed. The al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad stated that Abu al-'Ola is one of their members.

And Abu al-'Ola is also listed as a "civilian" on the PCHR casualty list (#1290.)

We are going through all the PCHR reports now and will list all of the people that the PCHR had already previously identified as "resistance activists" who they later called civilian. But these examples are enough to prove that the PCHR not only was being disingenuous by claiming that they had no evidence that these people were militants, but that they were outright lying.

(h/t PTWatch who did most of this research)