Page 15 - TORCH Magazine #23 - July 2023

now have more comfortable lifestyles than before. Luxury hotels, shopping malls and restaurants are becoming commonplace
in Gaza, especially for Hamas officials who have exploited their people to gain wealth. It seems Hamas leaders may not be so willing to lose their lives or their lifestyle for the time being.
This does not mean Hamas has reformed or that Hamas will not engage with Israel in the future. However, it seems they weighed up what they could gain from conflict with what they could lose, and it did not seem worthwhile to them at this time. This is despite heavy pressure from external forces, such as Iran.
Israel should also be given credit for the way they targeted PIJ. The IDF struck hundreds of terrorist targets in Gaza and not one of those assets belonged to Hamas. Israel gave Hamas no reason to get involved.
In this part of the article, we will highlight some key facts that you will never hear in the mainstream media. It is important to know the truth so that we are not deceived by the lies. It also helps
equip us to counter misconceptions when we are talking with friends or interacting with
people online. Israel had full
rights under international
law to strike PIJ targets, including
its terror leaders. The truth is that Israel was defending itself from an outlawed terror group whose sole purpose is to destroy Israel, and Israel did everything correctly according to international law, even when targeting commanders in their homes.
Unfortunately, many governments and even the United Nations condemned
Israel for the loss of civilian life in Gaza. However, Israel did everything in its power to prevent civilian casualties. Additionally, Israel’s strikes on Gaza resulted in low civilian casualty rates compared with other conflicts. That includes NATO forces who have caused much higher civilian casualties than Israel when dealing with radical Islamist terror groups.
Likewise, Israel only targeted terrorist infrastructure and terror group members. They never deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians. In total, 33 people lost their lives in Gaza during the short conflict between Israel and PIJ and two people lost their lives in Israel. Let us break down these numbers a little.
Most of those killed in Gaza were terrorists. When you consider that Israel struck over 400 enemy targets in Gaza, which included training facilities, weapons depots, rocket launcher sites and terror tunnels, the number of casualties in the conflict was extremely low.
To put this into perspective, Israel struck 400 military sites in one of the most densely populated places on earth. Only
29 people were killed during these strikes, and the majority of them were terrorists. Additionally, four Palestinian civilians were killed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s own rockets.
Shockingly, 20% of the rockets that PIJ fired towards
Israel did not
reach Israel.
Instead, these rockets fell short of the