{"id":103558,"date":"2024-02-29T23:20:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T23:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/us-defence-secretarys-comments-suggest-israel-is-nowhere-close-to-destroying-hamas-us-news\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T23:20:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T23:20:08","slug":"us-defence-secretarys-comments-suggest-israel-is-nowhere-close-to-destroying-hamas-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/us-defence-secretarys-comments-suggest-israel-is-nowhere-close-to-destroying-hamas-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"US defence secretary’s comments suggest Israel is nowhere close to destroying Hamas | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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US defence secretary’s comments suggest Israel is nowhere close to destroying Hamas | US News<\/h2>\n

US defence secretary’s comments suggest Israel is nowhere close to destroying Hamas | US News<\/p>\n

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The US defence secretary was asked in Congress today how many women and children had been killed by Israel since 7 October.<\/p>\n

“It is over 25,000,” Lloyd Austin said.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon later added: “We cannot independently verify these Gaza casualty figures.”<\/p>\n

But his number is actually a little higher than the women and children breakdown given by officials in Gaza.<\/p>\n

And the fact it was said by the American defence secretary is hugely significant.<\/p>\n

Middle East latest: <\/strong>US says ‘too many Palestinians died today’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Intentionally or otherwise it adds pressure on Israel as ceasefire talks drag on and are repeatedly stalled.<\/p>\n

Throughout this conflict<\/strong>, doubt has been cast by the American administration over the accuracy of the figures emerging from Gaza.<\/p>\n

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\n US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. Pic: AP
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In alignment with the Israelis and many Western governments, they have said it is wrong to trust the Gaza health ministry figures because it is run by Hamas.<\/p>\n

At points, there have been moments of deviation from that assertion, with different officials from different Western countries at times saying the numbers could be accurate.<\/p>\n

But the overriding implication had been that the numbers were wrong and inflated.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Biden’s hopes for a ceasefire are ‘wishful thinking’<\/strong>
Euphoria star arrested at pro-Palestinian protest<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n Israeli soldiers take part in an urban warfare drill near the border with Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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The latest Hamas numbers, from their health ministry, say about 30,000 people have died<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hamas does not break down the deaths between combatants and non-combatants.<\/p>\n

The latest health ministry figures, from 28 February, say 12,300 children have been killed and 8,400 women, which comes to 20,700.<\/p>\n

On Mr Austin’s number of more than 25,000, and assuming the known total dead is about 30,000, then that leaves 5,000 men dead.<\/p>\n

Before this war, Hamas is believed to have had about 30,000 fighters.<\/p>\n

So all this tells us two things.<\/p>\n

First, Israel is nowhere near close to its stated aim of totally destroying Hamas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Second, even if you conclude all the men are combatants – an absurd conclusion but one that has been drawn at points in this conflict – then more than 80% of those killed are civilians.<\/p>\n

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US: Death toll is ‘far too high’<\/span>
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All in a war prompted by the Hamas attack last October, prosecuted by Israel and enabled by America.<\/p>\n

I asked the State Department spokesman how this could be seen as anything other than a complete disaster and a total failure of American leadership.<\/p>\n

Matt Miller avoided the question and repeated the US government line that the number of civilians killed is “far too high”.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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US defence secretary’s comments suggest Israel is nowhere close to destroying Hamas | US News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US defence secretary’s comments suggest Israel is nowhere close to destroying Hamas | US News US defence secretary’s comments suggest Israel is nowhere close to destroying Hamas | US News The US defence secretary was asked in Congress today how many women and children had been killed by Israel since 7 October. “It is over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7711],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7711"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}