Israel: ‘20,000 Hamas Fighters Killed’ Sparking Gaza Death Toll Debate (Worthy News Focus)

=By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM/THE HAGUE (Worthy News) – A leading war crimes lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, has publicly raised doubts that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Geert-Jan Knoops made the comments as experts doubt the death toll figures provided by Hamas-controlled authorities.

Following last week’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, debates have begun about Hamas-backed health authorities claiming that more than 46,600 people were killed, with just over half of them identified as being “women, children or older people.”

The United Nations went even further, saying in November that 70 percent of Gaza’s casualties are women and children.

The organization called the situation “a systematic violation of international humanitarian law.”

Advocacy group Amnesty International echoed these sentiments in December, alleging “genocide” by Israel, further isolating the Jewish nation on the global stage.

In the Netherlands hosting the ICC, Dutch civil servant Eline Bosman resigned in protest over her government’s approach to the Gaza crisis.

EXPRESSING FRUSTRATION

In an interview, she expressed frustration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for “its failure” to take a firmer stance against Israel.

She reportedly considered gifting her boss, Minister Veldkamp, 42,000 candies—symbolizing the lives allegedly lost in Gaza at the time, along with a reminder of “the 67 children who die daily in the conflict.”

Yet the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced last week that they had killed at least 20,000 Hamas fighters since October 7.

Prominent military expert Andrew Fox labeled the numbers as “misleading,” claiming the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza provided inflated statistics.

Fox and researchers Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone, and Gregory Rose studied the data and found “evidence” of manipulation.

For instance, they noted that natural deaths and pre-October seven fatalities may be included in civilian casualty tallies.

Additionally, some deaths in Gaza were caused by failed Hamas rocket launches, with up to 15 percent of rockets falling within Gaza itself, according to the researchers.

CASUALTIES DEBATE

A key issue is the distinction between civilian and militant casualties. While Hamas claims all deceased Gazans are “martyrs,” Fox agrees with the IDF that around 50 percent of the dead are combatants.

A Hamas commander admitted in September that about half of the group’s 40,000 fighters had been killed. This would suggest a roughly 1:1 ratio of civilians to militants if accurate.

Fox noted significant errors in Hamas-provided data, such as “a 22-year-old listed as a baby” or women with male names recorded among female casualties.

Critics accuse Fox of spreading propaganda, but he argues that these errors are “the tip of the iceberg.”

Dutch lawyer Knoops and other experts say the claim that Israel is committing genocide remains contentious. Knoops stressed that such allegations require “proof of intent to destroy a population.”

Israel maintains that its operations target Hamas, not civilians. “The Amnesty report relies on interviews with 212 people and existing U.N. documents, but it’s unclear who these interviewees are or how their information was verified,” Knoops told leading Dutch daily De Telegraaf (The Telegraph).

Without insight into the intelligence behind Israel’s military operations, experts argue it is nearly impossible to determine violations of wartime laws.

Commentators believe this lack of clarity underscores the broader challenge of verifying casualty figures and accountability in one of the world’s most complex and polarizing armed conflicts.

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