Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Two weeks ago, the IDF revealed a chilling incident: Hamas operatives posed as World Central Kitchen aid workers, wearing yellow vests and using WCK-branded vehicles. WCK swiftly confirmed that the imposters had no affiliation — that this was terrorism hiding in humanitarian garb.

Then, earlier this week, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Southern Gaza — not randomly, cruelly or without reason, but because Hamas was using the hospital to operate surveillance cameras to track IDF movements.

A tragic battlefield misstep occurred when tank fire was used to disable those cameras instead of drones, killing 6 Hamas terrorists who were either operating or near the targeted cameras, but also resulting in unintended civilian casualties. This outcome was tragic — but sadly predictable. 

This is the logic of Hamas’ strategy: weaponize Gaza’s hospitals, schools, mosques, and aid centers, force civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, and then broadcast them as evidence of Israeli atrocity.

Hospitals: Protected — Until Abused

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) stands firm: during a war, hospitals may not be targeted — unless they are being used for military purposes. Hamas’ use of these sites as command or surveillance posts nullifies their protection.

Mosques and Schools: Sacred — Until Militarized

Houses of worship and schools are also granted special status under IHL. But that protection dissolves once they are used for military advantage — a tactic Hamas consistently employs, turning places of worship into weapons depots and schools into hideouts.

Humanitarian Aid: Safe — Until Exploited

Under IHL, even aid workers can become legitimate targets when Hamas impersonates them. The WCK incident not only endangered genuine aid efforts, but it also weaponized the trust people place in humanitarian organizations, and eroding that trust endangers aid workers everywhere in Gaza.

This Is Calculated — Not Casual

These are not random errors — they are deliberate Hamas strategies: embed fighters and military and tactical equipment in civilian infrastructure, provoke strikes, and unleash graphic narratives. The recent hospital strike and the WCK impersonation reflect this grim choreography.

A Double Standard with Deadly Consequences

When US or UK forces faced civilian casualties in Mosul or Aleppo, the world understood the moral complexity caused by ISIS embedding itself among civilians and fighting in civilian clothes.

But when Israel confronts Hamas — whose tunnel networks under hospitals and all other civilian infrastructure in Gaza rival entire urban subway systems — the narrative is nearly monolithic: Israel is the villain.

This is the double standard defined in the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.

No Safe Haven for Gaza Civilians

Hamas’ cynical human shield strategy and its use of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure as cover is enhanced as a tactical tool by the actions of Gaza’s Arab neighbors.

In Syria and Ukraine, civilians fled across borders to safety in Jordan, Poland, Turkey.

In fact, in every war in modern history, civilians have left combat zones to go to neighboring non-hostile countries.

But after October 7, Egypt and Jordan closed their borders, citing political fears. That leaves Gaza civilians trapped — forced to rely on limited “humanitarian zones” Israel sets up — zones Hamas routinely targets and even tries to stop Gazans from entering.

The result: Israel is held to an impossible standard: avoid civilian casualties even when terrorists hide themselves and their military and tactical infrastructure next to, among, and beneath them, while Gaza’s Arab neighbors are held to no standard of refuge for their fellow Arabs whatsoever.

Casualty Figures — Propaganda Masquerading as Data

To make matters worse, most media outlets parrot casualty numbers from Hamas’ so-called “Health Ministry.”

The Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers lump together civilians, combatants, natural deaths, and even those killed by Hamas’ own misfired rockets. For years before October 7th, between 5,000 and 7,000 people in Gaza died from natural causes. Meanwhile, at least 15% to 25% of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s rockets fall short, killing Gazans.

And Hamas routinely kills Gazans it decides are “collaborators” with Israel. All these deaths — along with the death of Hamas fighters — are aggregated in Hamas’s “death tolls” for the October 7th war it started.

Yet the narrative advanced by major media outlets and on social media paint every death as of a civilian killed by Israel. This is propaganda masquerading as data.

Conclusion: Accountability, Not Convenient Narratives

Hamas will continue to weaponize its own civilians — and civilian spaces — if excuses remain for its behavior. Only when the global dialogue refuses to blame Israel for the foreseeable results of Hamas’ human-shield warfare can moral clarity return.

The responsibility lies — with Hamas, not Israel — to stop turning Gaza’s hospitals, schools, and civilian infrastructure generally into strategic targets. Let’s call this what it is: terrorism hiding behind civilian facades. Until the world stops tolerating and even rewarding Hamas’ cynical human shield tactics, they will continue.

Micha Danzig is a current attorney, former IDF soldier & NYPD police officer. He currently writes for numerous publications on matters related to Israel, antisemitism & Jewish identity & is the immediate past President of StandWithUs in San Diego and a national board member of Herut.

Morris Abram (left), chairman of National Conference on Soviet Jewry, with Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City, and Natan Sharansky, former Prisoner of Conscience. Photo: Center for Jewish History via Flickr.

The Russian-speaking Jewish community (RSJ) has traveled a long road to America.

From pogroms and World Wars to Soviet repression, our families fled in search of freedom and opportunity. New immigration to the US has slowed, and today, the future of the community rests with the children of those who arrived decades ago. What will their identity look like?

To find out, the American Russian-Speaking Jews Alliance (ARSJA) surveyed RSJ parents and received over 250 responses summarized in a new report.

The findings show a community deeply committed to raising Jewish children — even if traditional religious observance is not at the center.

Although 54 percent of the respondents do not keep kosher and only 3 percent attend synagogue daily, 89 percent of parents expect their children will have a “Very strong” or “Somewhat strong” Jewish identity.

Community life seems to be more popular than ritual. More than half of those surveyed attend RSJ gatherings or Israel-related events, and 67 percent go to synagogue on the High Holidays.

Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, reminded us that, “American Jews are a diverse population, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s important that organizations like ARSJA are working to identify and respond to the specific needs of the Russian-speaking Jewish community.”

The “Russian-speaking” part of the identity is more complicated.

Most parents (58 percent) want their children to speak Russian mainly to communicate with grandparents.

Grandparents (75 percent) and parents (70 percent) are the people children use Russian with most often.

Yet only 60 percent of parents believe their children will maintain a strong RSJ identity. For some, the label recalls a painful past. One respondent said that they “see [their] Russian-speaking identity as really more of being raised in the former USSR, a totalitarian regime, the type of which we hope our children will never experience.”

Still, the community is finding new expressions of identity. Judi Garrett, COO at Jewish Relief Network Ukraine, points out that RSJs have played an active role in fundraising efforts. She noted that American-born RSJs organized campaigns that raised significant support for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Philanthropy may become one of the ways that the next generation expresses who they are.

Parents also voiced deeper concerns. When asked what they worried about most regarding their children’s Jewish identity, the most common answers were antisemitism and assimilation. These anxieties echo across the wider American Jewish community and underscore how forces outside the family shape identity.

The survey does not provide simple answers. It does, however, spark an important conversation. For RSJs in America, the challenge is not only how to preserve their heritage, but how to pass down a Jewish identity rooted in belonging, pride, and purpose.

Mariella Favel leads data analysis at ARSJA, as well as research into how various communal and national organizations are influencing civic discourse.

Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli offensive, shelter in a tent camp as the Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza, in Gaza City August 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

A joint +972, Guardian, and Local Call article “reveals” that 83 percent of casualties in Gaza since October 7th have been civilians. The shocking headline would be horrifying if true. Except, it’s not.

The concerted effort to smear Israel quickly unravels once the numbers from the investigation are pulled apart and looked at critically.

At the start of the war, the IDF reportedly held a database with an estimated 47,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip; the IDF worked to keep track of those who were successfully targeted.

By May 2025, the number of positively identified terrorists stood at 8,900. This number was included within the IDF’s broader estimates of more than 20,000 terrorists eliminated at the time.

In May 2025, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health claimed the death toll in Gaza was 53,000. The three news outlets took this (disputed) number and put it next to the known 8,900 terrorist deaths confirmed by Israel.

+972, The Guardian, and Local Call presented the remaining 83% of deaths as civilians. In doing so, these outlets effectively fell for Hamas’ propaganda and obscured the reality of guerrilla warfare in Gaza.

The statistic built was void of the most important context: the number represented only terrorists Israel had already confirmed by name — and ignored the many thousands still under review or not yet identified.

The faulty 83% statistic also only included Hamas and Islamic Jihad, despite other terrorist organizations and independent actors existing in the Strip. In other words, anyone not on Israel’s confirmed terrorist list was automatically counted as a civilian — including unidentified combatants and the thousands of newly recruited members of Hamas, who wouldn’t yet be identified on the IDF’s list.

The IDF, too, acknowledged the flaws in using Hamas’ casualty figures to determine the success of IDF operations over the course of the war, emphasizing that the claims in the article are not only “false but also reflect a fundamental lack of military understanding.”

No, it doesn’t.

The IDF has been able to name and identify 9,000 terrorists out of thousands more it has yet to positively ID.

But @guardian would have to read the article it’s quoting in order to discover that detail… https://t.co/NZOSVYzUTi pic.twitter.com/hfOZoz1Oaw

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 21, 2025

Being that terrorists in the Gaza Strip deliberately embed themselves in the civilian population by wearing civilian clothing and don’t walk around with a name tag or identity card, it is impossible to know the exact number of terrorists that have been killed during IDF operations.

As of August 2025, the Hamas-provided casualty number stands at 62,000, while the IDF believes it has targeted over 22,000 terrorist operatives.

Despite the flaws in Hamas’ casualty figures — Hamas is well known for routinely inflating the casualty figures, a key element of its propaganda war against Israel — if we are to look at them at face value, the civilian to combatant ratio is an astonishingly low 2:1.

The UN estimates that the average civilian to combatant ratio in urban warfare is 9:1. By attempting to stretch the casualty ratio, +972, The Guardian and Local Call seek to warp reality and falsely accuse Israel of committing genocide.

The article of course elevates Hamas data as accurate, ignoring that it includes natural deaths, deaths caused by Hamas, child combatants and numerous other anomalies. It also falsely asserts Israel accepts the Hamas data even though Israel said it officially does not. 2/ pic.twitter.com/my3cjDNshW

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) August 21, 2025

Not only is it an incredibly impressive feat for the IDF to be able to identify terrorists, but it also sheds light on the war the IDF is fighting. While the media attempts to slander the IDF for deliberately targeting civilians, the IDF is working to maintain precision and minimize civilian harm, going so far as to keep track of combatant deaths where possible.

The data undercuts the headline, banking on readers seeing only the flashy, misleading figure rather than engaging with the full picture.

This is exactly how +972, The Guardian, and Local Call push a narrative that their own reporting can’t back up, and turn selected numbers into a supposed indictment of Israel’s conduct in the war.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.