Jan. 22, 2009
A reporter from Italy's Corriere della Sera said no more than 600 people died in Gaza based on tours of hospitals in the Gaza Strip and interviews with families of casualties. He also interviewed many Gazans who accused Hamas of blatantly using them as human shields.
The story is reminiscent of 2002 when Palestinians claimed a "massacre" of 500 hundred Palestinians in a Jenin refugee camp at the hands of Israeli troops. In the end, the death toll was 54, most of them armed men.
The numbers of dead and wounded in Gaza were repeated by the Red Cross and the United Nations based on Hamas claims. Cremonesi said the wounded numbered far lower than 5,000.
"It is sufficient to visit several hospitals [in the Gaza Strip] to understand that the numbers don't add up," he wrote.
The hospital in Rafah showed many empty beds as did the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. In the privately-run Amal Hospital, Cremonesi reported that only five out 150 beds were occupied.
Gazans told the Italian how Hamas gunmen used civilians as human shields. One Gazan recalled civilians in Gaza shouting at Hamas and Islamic Jihad men, "Go away, go away from here! Do you want the Israelis to kill us all? Do you want our children to die under their bombs? Take your guns and missiles with you."
"Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?" the religious fanatics of Hamas reportedly responded.
Other Palestinians told Cremonesi that Hamas operatives wore paramedic uniforms and commandeered ambulances. A woman spoke of Hamas using UN buildings as launch pads for rockets. The local population was terrified of Hamas, Cremonesi said.
Thank you Cremonesi for doing what a journalist should do: Find out for yourself rather than merely repeat the claims of both sides.
