Blame Hamas and Hezbollah for civilian deaths, not Israel

Western governments and the significant sections of the media are simply not subjecting civilian casualty rates in Gaza and Hezbollah to sufficient scrutiny.

By Con Coughlin, Gatestone Institute

If Western politicians and aid agencies want to apportion blame for the high death tolls in the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, then they need look no further than the Iranian-backed terror groups cynically risking the lives of innocent civilians to achieve their diabolical agenda.

From the moment Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists launched their deadly attack against Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking another 250 or so hostage, Hamas terrorists have shown a wilful disregard for the lives and well-being of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Whether it is using schools, hospitals, and other public buildings that are supposed to be afforded immunity in conflict under international law, or simply using Palestinian civilians as human shields, Hamas terrorists have consistently jeopardised the well-being of those they purport to defend.

It is a similar picture in Lebanon, where it is now clear that Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters have deliberately located their missile stockpiles and command centres within densely-populated civilian areas.

While the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have implemented a range of measures in both Gaza and Lebanon to avoid civilian casualties — which includes encouraging civilians to leave their homes in advance of military action — Western politicians and aid agencies invariably blame Israel for any civilian casualties, when they should really be blaming the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists who deliberately put their own people in harm’s way in the first place.

Western governments and the significant sections of the media are simply not subjecting civilian casualty rates in Gaza and Hezbollah to sufficient scrutiny.

In Gaza, for example, where most of the casualty figures are provided by the Hamas-run health ministry, Western politicians all-too-frequently assume that the claims that more than 40,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action at face value.

No mention is made of the fact that a significant proportion of those casualties are in fact Hamas terrorists who have been killed fighting against the IDF.

Recent estimates place the number of Hamas terrorists killed in Gaza during the past year of intensive fighting at something approaching 20,000, which would account for a significant proportion of the civilian casualty figures provided by the Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Another area where Hamas deliberately intensifies the suffering of Palestinian civilians as a means of pressuring Israel to end its military offensive is by denying Palestinian families access to much-needed aid supplies.

While the Biden administration and international aid agencies, especially those working for the United Nations, have consistently criticised Israel for failing to provide adequate supplies of aid to Gaza, it is now generally recognised that Hamas almost exclusively controls the aid distribution network.

When the Gazans, for whom the aid is intended, try to approach it, there have been reports of Hamas operatives shooting them.

Rather than criticising Israel for the aid shortages in Gaza, therefore, the Biden administration, which has threatened to withhold arms supplies to Israel unless there is an improvement in aid supplies, would be better advised to focus its attention on Hamas and its backers in Iran and Qatar if it is genuinely interested in alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

The cynical exploitation of ordinary Palestinians by Hamas leaders is evident from the lavish lifestyle Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar enjoyed with his family in his bunker beneath the impoverished Palestinian district of Khan Younis in Gaza.

While Palestinian women and children living above his hideout faced starvation, Sinwar and his family enjoyed living in cosy living quarters deep below ground which had an abundance of UN food supplies, thousands of half a billion dollars in cash and their own shower.

It is not only in Gaza that Iranian-backed terrorists are cynically exploiting the plight of civilians while the terrorists themselves enjoy a life of luxury and opulence.

It is a similar story in Lebanon, where the latest revelations show that Iranian-backed Hezbollah leaders have been hiding hundreds of millions of dollars — including half a billion reportedly belonging to Hezbollah’s recently assassinated secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah — in cash and gold in a “money bunker” located under a hospital in Beirut.

According to the latest details provided by the IDF, the treasure trove was funnelled from Iran as part of an arrangement with the terror group’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike this year.

The revelations about the cash hoard comes in the wake of allegations that Hezbollah has been deliberately storing its arsenal of long-range missiles in civilian homes to avoid detection by the IDF.

This has prompted the Israelis to make repeated warnings to Lebanese civilians in the area to leave their homes ahead of possible Israeli military action.

Given the willingness of Iranian proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah to sacrifice the well-being of civilians for their own perverse ends, it is hardly surprising that there is growing evidence of widespread disaffection among both Palestinians and Lebanese at their tactics.

In both Gaza and Lebanon a growing proportion of the civilian population would reportedly like to be freed from the oppression they suffer at the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, a fact Western leaders and international aid agencies must take on board when weighing up their approach to the deepening conflict in the Middle East.

If the Biden administration and its allies in the media, the United Nations and European Union really want to see a peaceful resolution of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, then they should direct their criticism of the wilful mistreatment of civilians towards Hamas and Hezbollah and their backers, not Israel.

Ending the malign operations of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah is the best means of ending the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon respectively, and providing ordinary Palestinians and Lebanese with a genuine opportunity to make a better life for themselves.

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