by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:
As we approach the one year anniversary of the attack on October 7th and the initiation of Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza a fresh analysis of emerging evidence heavily contradicts the official narrative.
(MintPress News) It has now been one year since the October 7 attack, led by Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades. There are two diametrically opposed versions of that day: the Israeli narrative and what the evidence suggests.
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On October 7, at 6:30 a.m., the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, launched a military assault targeting Israeli military positions, Kibbutzim, and surrounding areas. According to a 16-page report issued by the group, titled “Our Narrative,” their stated mission was to attack Israeli military positions and seize captives to exchange for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The report also acknowledged certain “faults” in their actions.
Israel’s narrative claims that an unprovoked terrorist attack was launched against them, deliberately targeting civilians, including allegations of beheadings, burning, and dismemberment of babies, as well as a premeditated mass rape campaign. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris described the events as “the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
The Death Toll
On October 7, it was quickly reported that at least 413 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli death toll underwent several revisions before an accurate figure emerged. Initially, the Israeli government stated that 1,400 Israelis had been killed. On November 10, 2023, this number was revised down to “around 1,200,” with officials attributing the discrepancy to difficulties in differentiating between Israeli and Palestinian bodies due to severe burns.
The final Israeli death toll from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139, including 815 civilians and 324 soldiers, police, or security officers. This would suggest a civilian-to-combatant ratio of roughly 3.5:1, assuming all deaths were caused by Palestinian attackers.
Other accepted statistical breakdowns report 695 civilian deaths and 373 combatants, along with 71 foreigners. This highlights the ongoing debate over who should be classified as a civilian, as many off-duty soldiers and trained fighters took up arms during the attack, shifting their status from civilians to combatants.
According to a March 25 article written for Newsweek by John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, “Israel has created a new standard for urban warfare” in its war on Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later cited Spencer’s article during his speech to U.S. Congress in July.
Spencer’s argument is flawed, as he relies on Israeli ratio claims that don’t hold up when examining the official death toll in Gaza, particularly when accounting for the women and children killed. Spencer references the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul in Iraq to justify what he deems an acceptable civilian-to-combatant ratio in U.S. wars, highlighting a 4:1 ratio where 10,000 civilians were killed for every 2,000 ISIS fighters.
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