Hamas admits it lied about Cast Lead casualties

Now, almost two years after Operation Cast Lead, Hamas officials admit their civilian casualty claims were fraudulent.

I'm sure the mainstream media will ignore this…

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Hamas confirms losses in Cast Lead for first time

By JPOST.COM Staff

Hammad to 'al-Hayat': No al-Qaida in Gaza, insists "we're centrists, we don't like zealots," claims Israel trying to escalate Gaza situation.

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Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad on Monday told London-based newspaper al-Hayat that al-Qaida does not have any presence in Gaza, and discussed casualties in Operation Cast Lead as well as the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange talks.

Hammad said in the interview that Hamas is ready for war but ruled out an escalation anytime soon, saying that "Israel has always sought to escalate the situation in Gaza in order to wage war, and we are not afraid of war." The senior Hamas man continued, "We expect that there are wars to come, but the international situation, and the regional situation is not suitable for war at the present time."

However, the Hamas official accused Israel of provoking the US into fighting a war with Iran, saying, "We have the heart of one man," and adding "we have the ability to confront."

Responding to accusations that the people of Gaza had paid the price for Hamas' war with Israel, Hammad retorted, "They say that people who are affected by this war, but is Hamas not a part of the people?"

Talking about losses in the war, Hammad confirmed significant personnel losses in Hamas' military wings for the first time. He said, "On the first day of the war, Israel targeted police stations and 250 martyrs who were part of Hamas and the various factions fell." He added that, "about 200 to 300 were killed from the Qassam Brigades, as well as 150 security personnel."

Hammad also claimed that Israel too had deflated its casualty numbers, claiming that 50 Israelis were killed during Cast Lead, but that "they [Israel] acknowledged only 12 people."

Responding to reports of human rights abuses committed by Hamas security forces in the Strip, he said, "We are not a society of angels." He added: "We seek to advance the institutions and training, we are keen on the prestige of the police and their enforcement of the law. At the same time, we need to preserve the dignity of the citizen."

When asked if he fears al-Qaida cells in the Strip, he responded: "We do not have an al-Qaida base in Gaza." Trying to distance Hamas' ideology from Osama bin-Laden's terrorist group, he claimed, "We are centrists and are proud of that, we do not like zealots and extremists."

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If Hamas are "centrists", then I have to re-evaluate my own political stance. I've long considered myself centrist, but in my understanding, centrists don't shoot rockets or mortars indiscriminately at civilian targets or blow themselves up to kill innocent women and children in a shopping mall, bus or restaurant.

Ask the Gaza Christians if Hamas are zealots or extremists—or ask the Muslim groom beaten in front of cameras by the Hamas "morality police" for playing music at his wedding reception…you can find the clip in YouTube.

Now let's see what he really says… the 250 "police cadets" killed were really Hamas fighters; 200 to 300 fighters from the Qassam Brigades were killed (call it the median number—250) and 150 "security personnel" who were also Hamas fighters. 250 + 250 + 150 = 650.

If Hamas admits to 650 "Palestinian fighters" killed, you can bet that the real number is much higher—probably closer to 1,000—oddly enough, near the figure of the IDF estimates that Hamas claimed was a "fabricated lie".

This certainly sheds a different light on much of the criticism leveled against Israel at the time of Operation Cast Lead and should also have a significant effect on a re-evaluation of the Goldstone Report and its conclusions—but will it? Probably not.

Hamas knows just as well as the New York Times that apologies and corrections are buried on page 51, along with the "hatched, matched and dispatched" notices that no one ever reads, while the original erroneous headlines on page one remain burned into readers' memories.

Note: Fathi Hammad is the Hamas official who made the "We are a culture of death" speech.