How do we know the casualty numbers are legitimate?

[DefendIsrael]

I, like most people, want as little innocent people to die.

However, from my understanding, the death toll of civilians in Gaza comes from Gaza officials...and Gaza's government is HAMAS, the same organization that wants the destruction of Israel, and has been shown to lie to appeal to the western world. For example, the picture on twitter by Hamas that really was from Syria. or the BBC clip of the injured man that was shown to be fine seconds later. If they're lying about this, couldn't they easily be lying about the casualty numbers too?

[Denisedds]

We don’t, but does it really matter? If they are really concerned all they have to do is leave Israel alone and the fighting will stop.

[Sniper_Nangkring]

i just read the news and israel says now they are in 3 stages of war: physical war, cyber war, and media war! and now about this media war ( which is your question ) who do you want to believe? palestine or israel? personally i prefer to believe palestine! israel just sent waves of missle to gaza civilian area and sure are there is a kids in there, and its not about quantity, children casualty ( or women ) is unacceptable.

[Sameer]

It is almost 5 daysof war and the Palestinians announced that the numbers of death is less than 100.
With the scale of the isreali attack on the civilian populated areas in Gaza .....The Media reports ...
.I say the casualty numbers are legitimate .....

They just announced now the numbers of death casualties is 84 dead and 700 injured

[The Teacher]

Of course Hamas is lying. It makes up figures for the cameras. Any civilian deaths are those of Gaza rockets hitting theor own people. So far Israel has not killed any civilians. Not one.

[Lupines]

They typically inflate the civilian casualty count and misrepresent information. This campaign, they were already caught showing a picture of an injured Israeli child and trying to pass it off as a Gaza Palestinian one.

During the last campaign they took off uniforms for example and donned civilian attire, artificially inflating the civilian casualty count. International engagement rules mean armed combatants in civilian attire are NOT counted as civilians. Palestinians counted them as civilians anyway.

You're not going to be able to trust their #s they always push propaganda and false information to draw public sentiment to their favor. They are a terrorist organization so they don't have any rules. I think the media press reports false information anyways but not their tendency for inflation.

[Rabbi Ehrlichmann]

Well you sound like a very intelligent and knowledgeable person free from bias so let me ask you a question.

Was the bomb I saw explode in the middle of a city in Gaza today that created such a huge blast a 2,000 lb bomb or was it even bigger than that?

How big a bomb can an Israeli F-15 carry?

When you answer that question can you also explain how an explosion of that size and force be considered pinpoint targeting in any way?

Can you imagine that a blast as big as that bomb created possibly killing innocent people including children?

Were the bodies of the children I saw today on TV anything less than real murdered children?

[Steve]

Most likely the figures are inaccurate! They also carry people around pretending they are injured and then a few minutes later the same person is seen walking around perfectly fine! They call this PALLYWOOD.

It is quite amusing. Here is a link -

http://honestreporting.com/exposed-pally...s-to-gaza/

[n00bz]

I think Sameer got it right.
but it is hard to tell real injuries from made up ones.
also, Hamas does not differ between casualties of Israeli attacks and those of rocket misfire.

as for Rabbi Rainman, I suggest you come closer to Gaza for further investigation.