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What the Media Isn't Saying about the Gaza War

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to destroy Hamas' terrorist tunnels "with or without a cease-fire." Now the Israeli military has called up another 16,000 reservists to do just that.

Meanwhile, as Israel fights Hamas terrorists on the ground, they've also found themselves battling what they see as incomplete media coverage.

"Do you not think that's it relevant to report on CNN that the Secretary General of the United Nations yesterday warned against the use of UN schools and shelters as rocket missile depots by Hamas?" Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer recently challenged CNN host Erin Burnett.

It's one of many questionable reports about the war. 

For example, scenes of destruction within Gaza have been broadcast around the world. But what the media fails to report is that Hamas caused some of the damage.

"Since the beginning of the conflict, we've had over 200 documented cases of rockets and mortars that were launched from within Gaza that struck within Gaza," IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.

According to a Palestinian journal, 160 children died building those infamous terror tunnels. Rockets are fired from civilian homes, sometimes against the will of the homeowners.

Dr. Ron Lobel, with the Barzilai Medical Center, once treated a woman from Gaza.

"She told us that she and her husband were forced to be locked in their room, their apartment, and Hamas shot rockets from her courtyard," he said.

The current Palestinian death toll is estimated at more than 1,300. However, this highly reported statistic can be deceiving.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center studied the Hamas figures and concluded the Palestinian numbers quoted by United Nations, other international organizations, and the media are "… based mostly on Palestinian sources in Gaza, who have a vested interest in showing that we're killing many civilians."

In addition, the Middle East Research Institute reports that at the beginning of the conflict the Hamas ministry issued the following guidelines on how Gazans should report the news:

"Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza … don't forget to always add 'innocent civilian," the Hamas report reads "begin your reports … with the phrase 'in response to the cruel Israeli attack… do not publish close-ups of masked men with heavy weapons."

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren also noted that many homes in Gaza are booby trapped.

"You walk into a kitchen, booby trap on the toaster, booby trap on the refrigerator, the family booby traps," Oren said. "I'm hard pressed to think Hamas did this at the last moment. Hamas prepared for this."

The Israel Defense Ministry supplies Gaza with tons of food, fuel, and medical supplies on a daily basis.

While Article 7 of the Hamas Charter calls for the killing of Jews, Israelis don't celebrate the deaths in Gaza the way many Palestinians celebrate Israeli deaths.

"Any Israeli that I know is horrified by the civilian deaths in Gaza," one Israeli resident said.

The current conflict reminds some of the statement by the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

She said, "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."

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About The Author

Chris Mitchell
Chris
Mitchell

In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a Biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world. He first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. Chris repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East. In the past