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Stephen Pollard

ByStephen Pollard, Stephen Pollard

Opinion

Palestinians murder Palestinians

February 6, 2008 24:00
1 min read

Human Rights Watch's 2008 World Report has just been published. HRW is hardly a reliable source and has an agenda, but even if one takes their figures at face value, Brett at Harry's Place reaches some interesting conclusions based on their report: According to the Human Rights Watch report:

Between January and October 2007, 245 Palestinians, about half of whom were not participating in hostilities, were killed by Israeli security forces.

Okay, so that's roughly 120 Palestinians caught in the crossfire, so-called "collateral damage" (that terrible concept) from air-strikes, or otherwise killed while not in active armed combat.

But in that same period, according to HRW: Palestinian armed groups, rival security forces, and powerful clans continue armed attacks on one another. At this writing, 318 Palestinians, including many civilians, had died in such fighting in 2007, most of them in Gaza. By far the worst round of fighting broke out in June 2007 and left 161 Palestinians dead, including 41 civilians.