That is not my counting, that is from the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, and it is taking into account the ongoing effects of the devastation that has already happened.
I have had some complaints on my blog at times over the
last few months because I have highlighted the terrible crime that Israel is
perpetrating against the Palestinian people in the war in Gaza. One such
complaint is that I was using biased figures.
I said
in a previous blog post:
“I was meditating on this
question this morning: why can’t many Christians see obvious evil?
We see so many examples of
this. A few years ago, in an American election year involving the most
controversial President in modern United States history, a pandemic was used as
an excuse to lock people in their homes, shut down economies and movement of
people, place limits on how U.S. elections could function, and eventually
coerce hundreds of millions of people around the world to take an experimental
medical treatment most people did not want, and certainly most people did not
need, and which large companies profited from greatly. This had so many stamps
of evil all over it that to many of us were so clear, but to many more
Christians they not only did not see, they supported it, and even fought
against those who called it out. To this day many Christians refuse to see the
coercive evil they supported and was right in front of them.
But an even more pertinent
example now is the massacre of civilians happening in Gaza as I write this
article. This has all the hallmarks of evil all over it. Some Christians will
immediately jump in and say right now, “Woah, Woah!! Why are you supporting
Hamas?” Which just shows how blinded people are. Defending innocent civilians
caught up in collective punishment is not supporting Hamas. Bombing an entire
civilian city to rubble, displacing over two million people, and killing tens
of thousands of civilians is not justice, it is not a proportionate response,
and has all the hallmarks of evil all over it. Over 39,000 civilians are
confirmed dead, 14,622 of these are children, 8,986 are women, 73,300 are
injured, which includes maiming and other cruel injuries, among many more
atrocities. These are just the confirmed numbers with thousands more believed
dead under the rubble caused by the IDF campaign. Just because someone responds
to evil (the Hamas attack) does not mean they are good. As Paul would tell us
do not respond to evil with evil, but instead do what is honourable or good
(Rom. 12:17). In no impartial eyes is what Israel is doing in the category of
good. But thousands of Australian Christians are standing with Israel, and
crying out against criticism of Israel, at a time when Israel is committing
great evil. Yes Hamas did evil, but two wrongs do not make a right. No honest
person would say Hamas should not be brought to justice for their crimes, but
that is not what is happening. Not even close.
So why can’t so many
Christians see the obvious evil that is happening?[1]
If you want to hear my full answer for why so many
Christians cannot see the obvious evil happening I recommend you read the whole linked post. To summarize, it is because they have been caught up in a false religious
ideology which mischaracterizes the nation of Israel in the world today as the
people of God from the Old Testament. Once you make this category error it
leads to a host of other errors and up becomes down and down becomes up, and evil
becomes good. But as I said I address that in a previous post.
The main thing people took issue with in this post were
the numbers I provided from Euro-Med monitor,
“Over 39,000 civilians are
confirmed dead, 14,622 of these are children, 8,986 are women, 73,300 are
injured, which includes maiming and other cruel injuries, among many more
atrocities. These are just the confirmed numbers with thousands more believed
dead under the rubble caused by the IDF campaign.”
As I have said previously Christian Zionists often make two very self-contradictory arguments with the nation of Israel: 1) that they are God’s people and can do whatever they like to claim their land, and 2) But they wouldn’t do that bad thing that witnesses are saying happened… It is an incredible cognitive dissonance, but it is what it is. However, if you do think that way can I ask you to sit down and consider how contradictory those two statements are? You can have your cake, but you can’t have it and eat it too.
For a variety of reasons people cannot accept what their eyes are showing them regarding the state of the leadership of Israel and what it is calling on its military to unjustly do. What I found interesting though is that there were none, or very negligible theological arguments offered for my case, people simply quibbled over the numbers.
But are the numbers accurate? Well, for one, as I said,
they were simply the confirmed numbers, and I shared from a source that is
considered relatively reliable. For some, any information that is unfavourable
to Israel is simply categorized as from Israel’s enemies. So, there are many
people who will not accept any number that is higher than they feel should be
acceptable. But still it is good to share from various sources so, in light of
those criticisms here is another source from a trusted western organization,
the prestigious medical
journal The Lancet,
“By June 19, 2024, 37 396
people had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the attack by Hamas and the
Israeli invasion in October, 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as
reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The
Ministry's figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although
they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN,
and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in
the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those
reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.
Collecting data is becoming
increasingly difficult for the Gaza Health Ministry due to the destruction of
much of the infrastructure. The Ministry has had to augment its usual
reporting, based on people dying in its hospitals or brought in dead, with
information from reliable media sources and first responders. This change has
inevitably degraded the detailed data recorded previously. Consequently, the
Gaza Health Ministry now reports separately the number of unidentified bodies
among the total death toll. As of May 10, 2024, 30% of the 35 091 deaths were
unidentified.
Some officials and news
agencies have used this development, designed to improve data quality, to
undermine the veracity of the data. However, the number of reported deaths is
likely an underestimate. The non-governmental organisation Airwars undertakes detailed
assessments of incidents in the Gaza Strip and often finds that not all names
of identifiable victims are included in the Ministry's list. Furthermore, the
UN estimates that, by Feb 29, 2024, 35% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been
destroyed, so the number of bodies still buried in the rubble is likely
substantial, with estimates of more than 10 000…
… In
recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number
of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per
one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to
estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the
current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of
2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza
Strip. A report from Feb 7, 2024, at the time when the direct death toll was
28 000, estimated that without a ceasefire there would be between 58 260 deaths
(without an epidemic or escalation) and 85 750 deaths (if both occurred) by Aug
6, 2024.”[2]
The article then goes on to call for an immediate ceasefire
which would be the right move and wis also not likely to happen. Israel
and Gaza are locked into this conflict for the foreseeable future, and with the
various tit for tat hits between Israel and its other regional enemies it
appears this war is only going to escalate, and drag the United States even
more in with it.
But the main point, of course, is that those who quibbled
over the numbers are just wrong. The numbers are actually far more likely to be
considerably higher than the estimate given, because of all the people buried
under the rubble, those affected by disease and hunger, and many of the other
various evils of siege warfare. I chose to give what is considered by many to
be the conservative numbers for good reason. It is of course not uncommon for
numbers of deaths in a war to be misreported, inflated, questioned, and flat
out denied. The propaganda that has been unleashed since this all began is
phenomenal. This is all par for the course though, such is the fog of war. And
this is again an estimate, we do not know if or when we will get the full numbers.
But what should be increasingly obvious is that in seeking to use October 7th as justification for war, rather than police actions and other more reasoned strategies, the IDF has ended up committing great evil. It is becoming more and more obvious to all who are paying any attention.
Except those who don't want to see it, of course.
List of References
[2] Rasha
Katib et. al July 05, 2024, “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but
essential”, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext
Lancet is not prestigious it is a propaganda outlet. Look who they were reporting for during the plandemic
ReplyDeleteThe globalists? Yep. Of which Israel is a central plank of the globalist efforts. Israel was set up with the efforts of the world's largest empire in the early 20th century, Britain, established with the efforts of the UN, and has been supplied and defended by the world's current largest empire in the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century. As RFK junior has said, it serves as a land based aircraft carrier for US, Aka globalist, forces in the region. It was also a key place where mandates and vaccines were initially pushed, along with vaccine passports and other expwrimental globalist measures. So the fact that even a globalist outlet is tolling the bell that the death toll is far larger than people realize is remarkable. That should tell us something about how distasteful some people see this war.
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