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Sunday, July 13, 2014

Proportionality - Number of Israeli airstrikes about the same as number of Gaza rockets

According to the Gaza NGO Safety Office, there have been nearly 1100 Israeli airstrikes so far in Operation Protective Edge. (Some of the airstrikes included multiple missiles, perhaps 1.5 missiles per strike.)

According to the same source, about 1220 rockets have been fired from Gaza so far. (As we have seen, a high percentage of these are falling onto Gazans as well.)

Of course most IAF missiles are more powerful than most Gaza terror missiles, but it is interesting that the numbers are so close, especially for people who falsely claim a "proportional response" means an equivalent response.

It is also noteworthy that even if you falsely assume that every person killed in Gaza was killed by Israel and not errant Hamas rockets, which is clearly not true, only one Gazan has been killed per 10 missiles.

Anyone who has seen the damage caused by a single Israeli missile would realize immediately that Israel cannot be accused of either indiscriminate bombing or (as some haters claim) of targeting civilians, because in either case the number of people killed would be much, much higher.

Here is one of the best "roof-knocking" videos I've seen so far - "roof-knock" at 0:04, and devastating damage from missiles at 1:10.



Clearly there would be many hundreds more people dead if Israel was not warning the residents with leaflets, phone calls and finally "roof knocks". Any accusations of purposeful or wanton Israeli bombing are from people who have an agenda - or who are innumerate.

Back to the topic of probable Gaza casualties from Hamas or other terror group rockets, here is the front-page image that the UN is using to show damage in Gaza on their OCHA-OPT page.


Without more photos it is hard to know for sure, but the almost perfectly round shape of the hole in the wall together with the fact that the curtains have not been blown off and burned indicates that this is from a Hamas rocket, not an Israeli airstrike. Yet UN-OCHA does not mention even the idea of Hamas rockets falling short in their report.

The descriptions of how some of the children in Gaza were killed also seems to me to be inconsistent with IAF missiles and more probably the work of terror rockets. Unfortunately, the reporters in Gaza aren't skeptical enough of what they see and hear, nor savvy enough with military forensics, to know to research and verify the claims that they are mindlessly parroting from known liars in the Gaza health ministry or some "human rights" NGOs.

The rule is: if you cannot confirm the charges, don't repeat them. Seems like basic Journalism 101, yet we see that rule violated every hour of every day.

(h/t Yoel)