Why Hamas Never Admits That Palestinian Casualties Include Its Fighters
The terror group secured its greatest propaganda victory in its war against Israel when it took the simple but effective decision not to publicize the deaths of its combatants.
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This is a guest essay written by Alex Stein, an Israeli tour guide and one of the founders of the Tel Aviv Review of Books.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Two weeks ago, Hamas announced that 40 people were killed in an Israeli attack in the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip.
In response, the IDF said that its jets had struck “significant Hamas terrorists” who had “advanced and deployed terror plots against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.”
It added: “Before the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weaponry, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information.”
Hamas denied Israel’s claims, saying: “This is a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or using these places for military purposes.”
The casualty figures were announced by a Gaza civil defense official, not the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for the official tally. Whatever the final count, we can be certain of one thing: Hamas will not admit if any of those killed were among its fighters.
Hamas secured its greatest propaganda victory in its war against Israel when it took the simple but effective decision not to publicize the deaths of its combatants. Thus, the international media reports the casualty rate as follows: “The number of Palestinians killed is 41,664, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.”
The psychological impression created by this omission is that every single dead Palestinian is a civilian. Given how widespread — and unchallenged — this reporting of casualty figures remains, it is no surprise that the “genocide” libel has spread so widely.
Now, in an important report by Israeli journalist Sheren Falah Saab, “Why Hamas Tries to Hide the Number of Its Militants Killed by Israel,” we can examine this strategy in greater depth.1
As a Gazan called Adnan (a pseudonym, like all the other names in the article) said:
“The common assumption is that if they publish the names of dead militants, the world will identify less with Gazans.”
Another interviewee, Nadia, explained further:
“When you don’t talk about armed men, don’t mention them, don’t mention their being killed — they don’t exist in the dialogue.”
How, then, do Gazans share news of people who are killed in combat? According to Assam, they use a code, “advancing not retreating,” which is taken from the Hadith (a Muslim commandment):
“A man asks the messenger of God: ‘Do you think that if I am killed for Allah, my sins will be forgiven?’ The messenger answers: ‘Yes. If you are killed for Allah, as long as you are patient and content, advancing and not retreating.”
A Hamas member killed fighting Israel, then, is “advancing not retreating.”
There are some exceptions to this policy, however. The deaths of senior officials or those with important jobs in civilian affairs are publicized; for example the Deputy Director of Gaza Civil Emergency Service, Mohammad Morsi, who was killed along with four family members in airstrikes earlier this week.
Nadia explained: “They release only the names of activists who aren’t directly involved in the fighting and whose activities focus on humanitarian matters.”
In the West Bank, meanwhile, the Hamas Telegram channel has announced all members killed since October 7th, complete with names and pictures.
While there is some debate over the war’s overall casualty rate, the number of 41,664 feels reasonable, and the daily tallies released by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health generally seem to reflect the shifting intensity of the fighting.
Even if we accept a low estimate of 10,000 Hamas fighters killed, though, the psychological impact of publishing this number would be significant. Instead of “41,664 have been killed in Gaza,” the statement would read “41,664 have been killed in Gaza — 10,000 Hamas fighters/militants/terrorists and 31,664 civilians [or vice versa].”
In other words, it would be clear that what is taking place is a harsh war in an urban environment, and not a genocide.
Hamas’ strategy goes back over a decade. During the 2014 war, for example, Hamas declared:
“The Ministry of the Interior and National Security [in the Gaza Strip] calls on all our [Palestinian] people and the resistance factions to be wary of disseminating information and pictures of fatalities of the resistance, and [about] mentioning details about [the circumstances of] their deaths as martyrs and where they died.”
They also announced: “Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from the Gaza Strip or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. Don’t forget to always add “innocent civilian” or innocent citizen in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.”
Few seem particularly interested in how many Hamas fighters have died, though. One exception to this is The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood, who in May wrote about the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ sudden revision of the numbers of Palestinian women and children killed during the war, as well as Israel’s decision (which he criticized) not to let international journalists into Gaza.2
The fundamental point is that — whatever the protestations of so-called “credible aid organizations” who themselves are often untrustworthy — Hamas’ figures cannot be trusted, because they refuse to acknowledge their own dead fighters.
Even if one accepts a higher estimate for the number of Hamas fighters killed, though, the toll on the civilian population has been horrendous. And while the primary blame for this lies with Hamas for launching its murderous war on October 7th, Israel (despite claims to the contrary) has not always done everything it could to avoid civilian suffering. I struggle to see how a casual observer could deny this, even if acknowledging the obvious distortions and Hamas propaganda efforts.
Critiques of the war from this direction, though, are still fairly rare. Far more common are those who argue that any kind of military force against Hamas is at best an act of revenge and at worst an act of genocide. These arguments are strengthened immeasurably by Hamas’ strategy of pretending that not even one of those killed are combatants.
The international media should have refused to publish the Hamas casualty figures unless they clearly distinguished between civilians and combatants. Presented with what is an obvious falsification of reality, they should have refused to publish any Hamas-issued casualty figures unless the Ministry of Health in Gaza adhered to standard practice in wartime and listed which of the dead were combatants.
The fact that there is so little interest in what is obviously an abnormal situation reflects the wider context of reporting on the war, its causes and implications. At least now we understand why.
“Why Hamas Tries to Hide the Number of Its Militants Killed by Israel.” Haaretz.
“The UN’s Gaza Statistics Make No Sense.” The Atlantic.
 | A guest post by
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The media has generally shown contempt for the truth in this war. The agenda is to build a case against Israel and has snowballed to satirical levels of bias.
I just read an interview with the director of the Palestinian Ministery of Health published on Substack by a pro-Palestinian organization called ‘Drop Site News’. It goes into great detail about how the ministry identifies and counts how many people have died, but not once does the interviewers ask how many were Hamas members. The director explains how they are able to catalog detailed information about the circumstances of each death and how important it is to him that the personal story of each Palestinian killed is made known to the world. But never a word to explain why whether the person was a member of Hamas who was killed fighting is not noted, recorded, or publicised. As you mentioned, they’ve achieved great propaganda success and evidently now even they’re friendly media knows not to question it.