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Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 17, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Run a google search of my comments on that if you want. Did you forget that a month after this hospital bombing, the NYT put reporters in another hospital and were able to verify Israel bombed that one? Or did you forget that the hospital administrators — a hodgepodge of anglosphere Christians — confirmed that Shifa was attacked by Israel days before and warned of an impending attack? Israel and US claim it is a hoax, there has been no evidence that it was a hoax.

The hoax wasn’t that there was never a strike (although the jury seems to be out as to whether it was Israel or a failed Hamas rocket launch), but that 550+ died in it.

They would not be pulling random Hamas fighters in tunnels and putting a white coat on them and telling them to verify deaths.

Perhaps not, but again, they have every incentive to overcount deaths and absolutely zero incentive to undercount them, which is highly meaningful in this kind of invasion scenario. Again, I’m not arguing that total deaths are vastly lower than recorded, just that they’re unlikely to be much higher.

DNI disagrees

That data is old. Reuters’ sources inside Hamas reported their strength was 40,000 fighters pre-war, and they tend to be pretty reputable. Israel thought it was 30,000, but they were caught off guard. And of course many young men will have been drafted in or volunteered as fighters since the invasion began.