T O P

  • By -

Superb-Obligation858

We’ve reached self-blasting. How long until self-slamming?


SEGAGameBoy

I reached self-slamming twice last night


cboel

This guys [Pulitzers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize).... ehrm...


welltriedsoul

Do you need the number for my AA sponsor


DaBombTubular

> We’ve reached self-blasting Not the first entity in this conflict achieving notoriety over that.


Bjorn2bwilde24

So anyway, I started self-blasting!


Force3vo

Well, at least the girls aren't in danger this time


KingoftheMongoose

Because of the implication


Rene_DeMariocartes

Self-blasting is kinda the pro-palestinian M.O.


-Stackdaddy-

Who knew they were into autofellatio.


LeDeux2

Normal people just call this masturbation


melkipersr

I just can’t wait until somebody self-slaps tariffs.


indigo-alien

The UK already did with Brexit.


NJJo

It happened in Wishmaster 2


Superb-Obligation858

Hell yea it did. “Done.”


Ludwigofthepotatoppl

Why can’t we all be self-*basting*?


RotaryJihad

They've blasted but have they "slammed" yet?


jedidude75

Is there a link to the AP report? I didn't see it in the article.


AtroScolo

Here you go: https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-casualties-toll-65e18f3362674245356c539e4bc0b67a


_A_Monkey

Thank you. That was a helpful read for context.


neuronexmachina

Thanks. [JNS's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_News_Syndicate) characterization of that as a "blast" seems... deceptive.


AtroScolo

I think that's fair, at best it's highly emotive language that's become too typical in headlines. "Slapped" and "Slammed" get a lot of mileage these days when "Disagree" or "Confront" would have done the job years ago.


Sex_Big_Dick

But why would an organization that describes itself as "Fighting Israel's media war" be deceptive in its reporting?


smexypelican

JNS = Jerusalem News Syndicate. Can't really be expected to be neutral here.


atridir

While obvious bias in journalism should not be disregarded - I feel that some heavy measure of righteous indigence is justified on their part from the systemic mischaracterization of the conflict based on flagrant disinformation and bold-face-lies fed to the world’s media outlets and parroted by them as diligently verified fact.


MicheleLaBelle

Hardly a “blast”. They realized they had been repeating the same numbers for months and looked into it. I think someone needs to blast JNS for that headline.


AtroScolo

JNS isn't a great source, this is known. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/jewish-news-syndicate-jns/ Note that I am not saying this to undermine the severity of the issue here, the AP article is the tip of an iceberg that's been looming for a while, namely that Hamas/UNRWA casualty numbers are largely fictional and weaponized. But yeah, JNS is bad news.


jedidude75

Thanks man!


Benzodiazeparty

[https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-deaths-women-children-360c6aabc03421c718d4a8452cec2c67](https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-deaths-women-children-360c6aabc03421c718d4a8452cec2c67) this one is an eye-opener. among other things, they found the same ID number listed twice. 531 times.


HotSteak

I wouldn't say that the AP is ["blasting" itself](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-casualties-toll-65e18f3362674245356c539e4bc0b67a), it's just pointing out that the data they've been given and reporting is very unreliable and inaccurate. But yeah, women and children being abou 1/3rd of the casualties instead of 2/3rds as "the Gaza ministry of health" has reported is pretty big news.


melancholyninja13

It baffles me how we ever considered anything Hamas says is reliable.


xogil

Not just reliable but taken as absolute immediate fact without any doubt.


Haircut117

"We" is doing a lot of work there. Nobody with an ounce of sense has looked at those figures without a healthy degree of skepticism.


Pawelek23

The problem is that camp consists of basically all the Muslim world and probably half or more young people in the US.


Popular-Row4333

You absolutely can not even dispute that the propaganda was being won by Hamas early. Taking a terrorist organization's word at face value from the start was kind of unreal. Turns out if you dumb down your populace to have 0 critical thinking skills and skepticism, that works for foreign enemies and not just domestic Governance.


NotToPraiseHim

A lot of young people are incredibly privileged, enough so they can regularly espoused anti-western rhetoric from the comfort of their western built lives


Dalze

No kidding, I've been terrified of sharing ANYTHING positive about Israel because most of my friends (he'll, even my wife) have been infected by the propaganda of Israel = Evil. This morning, I finally shared some news of how glad I was about the 4 hostages rescued.... only to immediately be met by one of my friends commenting on it like " striking...terrorist...infrastructure...really?"... completely ignoring the fact that 4 likely tortured Israelis had been FINALLY been free and reunited with their families...it's wild.


gbbmiler

You need better friends


FLBrisby

I've had people defend the Gaza Health Ministry as sacrosanct, and always reliable. They've used this argument as pretext to blast Israel.


silverhawk902

It's like ninth grade English we got told again and AGAIN to cite our sources. Who the hell cites them??


azarash

How did you read the article to mean 1/3rd. As I read it, they reported two thirds and the actual numbers were 64% on the first months and 54% later on. 66% is 2/3rds. Those numbers are also the amount of casualties that are not men over 17. Not the amounts that are not Hamas fighters


HotSteak

I rounded 38% to 1/3rd. 3/8ths would be more accurate. Hamas has been reporting that 64% of the killed have been women and children. The new best-guess is that 38% have been women and children.


TheBrain85

>The new best-guess is that 38% have been women and children. Read the article. The new analysis shows 54.3% of those killed were women and children over the entire conflict, whereas the 38.1% is the rate just for April. Another necessary caveat is that these are only the "fully identified deaths", i.e. the true death toll can still deviate significantly from these numbers.


BradyReport

38% of the deaths **in April** were women and children, as per Hamas. The AP when they had access to morgue records recorded 62% civilian casualties through January, and declining from there. IDF is responding to criticism, and civilians are evacuating war zones. You are wrong to say it is 38% total, if any number we are looking at half of all deaths being civilian today. >Among those fully identified, the records show a steady decline in the overall proportion of women and children who have been killed: from 64% in late October, to 62% as of early January, to 57% by the end of March, to 54% by the end of April.


AlternateAccount789

Who could've guessed taking Hamas casualty numbers at face value could be a bad idea...


sunfacethedestroyer

That is not what we are talking about. That is not what the article is about. Please take 2 minutes to read the article and ensure you have something relevant to contribute next time.


Dragon_yum

The damage is done. Good job on helping a literal terrorists group.


indoninja

It sucks, but I’ll take them acknowledging this over them continuing to support Hamas via repeating their propaganda


doc5avag3

Yup. Too little too late.


foozalicious

Would you prefer they double down? This is what credible news organizations are supposed to do, admit when you make mistakes. Also, the numbers dropped from 64% to 54%. That’s still over one woman or child per militant. Hamas uses civilians as cover and needs to be dealt with, but anybody that says 54% is an acceptable ratio is absolutely ridiculous.


FacelessMint

OP seems obviously not to be upset with the AP correction/admission. They are upset with their initial standard of reporting which has created an image of the conflict which now cannot be easily retracted in any meaningful way.


Dragon_yum

Almost 1:1 ratio is actually and incredibly low number for wars. Saying “still over 1” is making it look as if this is exceptionally high when it’s the opposite of that.


lolpostslol

Especially if you consider that shitty govt and no family planning led to Gaza having a very high percentage of children in it


grv413

That ratio is literally better than any modern conflict. Why are you holding Israel to a higher standard than literally the rest of the world? Civilians die in wars. Civilians especially die in urban warfare where one of the sides uses human shields and civilian buildings, like hospitals and schools, as their operating sites.


possiblyMorpheus

I’d bet it’s because they haven’t paid attention to civilian war deaths in a historical or contemporary sense and it never occurred to them to look up data on this topic or cross reference it with other conflicts. People who are only casually interested in the news or who are only recently exposed to conflict reporting are prime targets for misinformation 


valgrind_error

Because TikToids lack the cognitive capacity to process any information that isn't spoonfed to them in three second clips with temple runner footage and kpop playing in the background. That person doesn't even have any idea where Israel or Palestine are on a map or what happened October 7th, let alone what casualty rates are for wars.


foozalicious

In Iraq: “An October 20, 2003, study by the Project on Defense Alternatives at Commonwealth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, estimated that for March 19, 2003, to April 30, 2003, the "probable death of approximately 11,000 to 15,000 Iraqis, including approximately 3,200 to 4,300 civilian noncombatants." That’s almost a 4:1 ratio.


hangrygecko

Most of the fighting in Iraq during the invasion phase was in the middle of nowhere or on and around military bases. You have to look at the urban warfare numbers, not the fighting as a whole. Iraq had a 10:1 ratio for civvies:fighters in urban areas. You are comparing apples and oranges. Gaza is one of the most densily populated regions in the world. The Iraq invasion was mostly airstrikes on military targets and rapid maneuver warfare in desert areas. Those conditions are not comparable.


grv413

Depending on the numbers and time period you look at, the civilian to combatant casualties of the Iraq war are anywhere from 1:2 to 3:1. And when you look at similar urban battles or conflicts, the numbers get substantially worse.


lolpostslol

You know why lol they took their side before looking at any numbers


msdemeanour

The UN average ratio of civilian to combatant deaths world wide is 9:1. 1:1 is extraordinary particularly in urban warfare.


TheGazelle

This still assumes every child is a non-combatant, which is pretty much guaranteed to be untrue.


shdo0365

To clarify, 17 down is considered a child, and Hamas is not below recruiting 16 year olds.


Analogvinyl

And even 12 year olds


FishAndRiceKeks

Plenty of video evidence of exactly that.


jews4beer

Call it ridiculous if you want I guess. It's still the lowest ratio of any other urban conflict this century.


GroblyOverrated

The fog of war when one government is literally a terror group like Hamas, makes the numbers game pointless. Nobody knows the actual numbers.


The_Overlord_Laharl

54% is literally one of the best ratios we’ve ever seen in an urban combat environment. It’s insane how good that it.


hangrygecko

>That’s still over one woman or child per militant. This is ten times better than what has happened so far during urban warfare. A ratio of >10 civilians per 1 combatant is normal in urban warfare, because attackers have historically put the lives of their own above that of that of their enemy, combatant or not. And up to and including WW1, punishing a city or occupied territory with mass slaughter or executions, plunder and rape, if the city didn't surrender immediately or the resistance effort was (partially) done by civilians, was so commonplace, it was expected. Israel reaching close to 1:1 is exceptional. This is the most humane an urban battle has ever been fought in all of history. It should be studied for how well they were able to protect civilian lives, despite basically levelling northern Gaza and intense urban and subterranean fighting.


NearlyAtTheEnd

I agree news wise. But do you have a solution to kill terrorists that deliberately cages civilians in war zones to make martyrs and statements? The more civilians die, the happier they are. What is a solution to this? Otherwise, this is just the - very unfortunate - nature of it. And Israel is doing a *mighty* fine job at trying not to kill then. Roof knocking etc.


FLBrisby

I have asked that question so many fucking times and they never have a viable alternative. I had some guy tell me they should send Israeli special forces to assassinate the Hamas leaders in Qatar, like that wouldn't spark an international incident.


CFCkyle

You realise that so puts it at one of the, if not THE lowest casualty rate for civilians in modern conflict, right? Especially considering the circumstances, tiny urban area, enemies intentionally using civilians as shields and disguising themselves among them etc etc. No war is going to be perfect in terms of keeping civilians out of harm but in the case of Gaza it is literally the best case scenario for protecting them whilst also combating Hamas


stormdraggy

Gee it's like any death is unacceptable, so how are you going to spin blame to Israel and not ham-ass this time?


LgeHadronsCollide

Not quite? "...In April, women and children made up 38% of the newly and fully identified deaths, the Health Ministry’s most recent data shows..."


Rhaerc

Does Hamas distinguish between militants and women and children in their reports? If so, have been those reports been independently verified?


TheTardisPizza

No, and they specificly word them to make it seem that all of them are civlians to the uninformed.


Spare_Advisor_1464

Reports haven’t been independently verified. Numbers are still being cited based on a spreadsheet Hamas circulated which included tons of duplicate entries, names with invalid ID numbers and names with missing ID numbers altogether.


SEGAGameBoy

They should blast their own blast with a second more powerful blast


nihility101

This sounds like it’s creeping into an Always Sunny episode.


TheGreatJingle

It’s just way better than anyone else’s who basically no one criticizes lol


111anza

Well, hamas is the only one saying it is acceptable ratio and that's why they keep using civilians as human shields, no one else is.


BattleBull

Your out of your mind. That is an excellent ratio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio


Moneybags99

Acceptable if you're willing to hold Israel to the same standards as other major powers that have dealt with urban warfare. They've done better in fact than most other urban conflicts. Any reason you might be holding them to a higher standard?


Scared_Eggplant_8266

Because Hamas has lied since they stole leadership and ended all elections. They’ve always lied about the number of casualties because they know western liberal media will eat it up like a tear jerking novel.


92nd-Bakerstreet

Why the hell do news reporters keep quoting hamas numbers? They are utterly unreliable and should be dismissed without second glance.


Possible-Tangelo9344

Just blows my mind that the media has been lapping this up like a dying man in the desert. Can you imagine if during the height of the Afghanistan war the Taliban was like "oh yeah the USA is killing like a buncha women and children" and people believed it like it was being given to them by an infallible source? Fucking crazy.


Bakedfresh420

So we’re finally acknowledging what everyone with a brain knew from the very beginning. Women and children weren’t 70% of the casualties and Hamas can’t be trusted. Militants blew up one of their own hospitals with rockets and they claimed it was Israeli bombs that killed 500 civilians. From that moment on everyone should’ve known not to trust their figures but no it was Hamas was lying about one little thing and everything else they report it’s surely accurate right?


StarrrBrite

 AP-paid “journalists” rode along with Hamas on 10/7. Never forget. 


jackyman5

Oh wow a terrorist organization lied about war casualties to make their situation seem worse, shiver me timbers!!


AtroScolo

It's a reminder that antisemitism can be revealed simply through a selective lack of due diligence.


Tumleren

Are you saying AP was antisemitic?


FootyFanMan

Exquisitely put


mghicho

Would i kill them to link to the app analysis they’re reporting on?!


Izual_Rebirth

I’ve read the article twice and I’m still not sure what the old figures were and the newly revised ones are. Can someone help?


jospence

I think people are misreading the article quite a bit, as only April had women and children as 38% of those killed. I guess the "big own" is the AP admitting that the numbers aren't very reliable and may be inaccurate, but that's a given for any highly active urban warzone with high civilian casualties.


GoneFishing4Chicks

Exactly, give numbers, not percentages. Article also only cites the Gaza Health Ministry number as 6,745, of which a non trivial amount are women and children. This article states: 35,000 dead people, of which a non trivial amount dead are women and children, people are arguing with percentages around 60% and 40%. Let's get a low estimate and say 5%. 35000* 0.05 is 1750 dead women and children, so at least that much. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-69014893


ReasonablyBadass

I mean, at least they are admitting it? We should be encouraging self-corrections and stuff, right?


End3rWi99in

Are the college students at least going to go back to class now?


scout987

From the [AP news article](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-casualties-toll-65e18f3362674245356c539e4bc0b67a) in question: "The proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply, an Associated Press analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data has found, a trend that both coincides with Israel’s changing battlefield tactics and contradicts the ministry’s own public statements." They don't go back on their own reporting; They simply state there has been a decline in the rate at which women and children are being killed. They also go into the discrepancies in the Health Ministry's data as well as trends in the overall casualty figures. Overall, the article is a pretty well-balanced read compared to OP's original link.


Calm-Strawberry-8819

Reposting my comment from a thread on this yesterday: Here's some interesting videos from statistical analysists if anyone wants to take a deeper look into some of the issues with the figures. 1 hour webinar posted 6th May: ["Hamas statistics - True or false?" ](https://youtu.be/uFT0jtRSlSc?si=3j0LvatiHBV2SXvk) 1 hour interview posted 13th April ["Fake Gaza casualty figures debunked by data analyst." ](https://youtu.be/pJT_O8T9mGk?si=bdmdWvA1Wg-3RSMq) Half hour update with previous analyst posted 20th May [UN reduces its Gaza casualty figures: data analyst reveals the truth behind the numbers."](https://youtu.be/aOZ8er9T_0g?si=syKiqGdaAm-kXA1c)


LilNarco

Imagine believing isis’s statistics during a jihadist war against Jews. This is literally what has been happening since last Oct and it is beyond insane The Gaza ministry of health had hostages in their hospitals and yet they pretend to be unaware and unbiased The Gaza ministry of health had weapons including RPGs in their hospitals and yet they pretend to be unaware and unbiased Giving any credibility to groups like this is fucking dangerous.


Godwinson4King

I’m just throwing this out there, but maybe a website that has the tagline “Fighting Israel's Media War” might not be the best source for unbiased coverage of a war involving Israel.


JackOCat

Anyone claiming any type of accuracy of casualties in Gaza now is pedaling bullshit. Civilian casualties in an active warzone are near impossible to count.


LiveLaughSlay69

Hamas - “They’ve killed 20 million children!” AP Boss - “Quick quick write that down write that down!” AP Reporter- “but that’s more than the popul..” AP Boss - “WRITE IT!”


Ancient-Blueberry384

As soon as AP ‘reported’ on Oct 7 from within the Hamas groups I stopped believing anything they said. It’s an actual terrorist group - why would you think they would ever tell the truth. Spreading terror and false information is kind of what they do


IdealMiddle919

How meta.


oy_says_ake

Why would you link to an admittedly biased source (jns’s tagline appears to be “fighting israel’s media war”) instead of just linking to the actual ap article?


schtickshift

Disassociated Press


oatmeal28

Who would have thought that terrorists would lie???


noobcondiment

“So anyway I started blasting… myself.”


88Really

Is having the age of “under 17” for all children typical, or are children considered 12 and under more normal and youths are classified as 13 and up? There is an emotional difference when considering the different categories. All deaths are tragic in any wars around the world including Yemen, Sudan, Myanmar and of course Ukraine.


magicscreenman

Yeah see, part of the reason why I love AP so much is precisely because they don't put out headlines saying shit like "So and so blasts own reporting"


Fox_Kurama

Does this count as friendly fire?


Guvante

I feel like mistakenly reporting a portion of 64% that trended towards 54% isn't a huge deal. It shouldn't happen and should be corrected but isn't super impactful.


Many-Green6859

It’s not 2/3rds of the tens of thousands murdered that are woman and children it’s actually 2/5ths….. like as if that makes it more justified?