Re: NPR: 200 Palestinians killed and more than 400 wounded in Gaza by Israeli army

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

This afternoon, I heard a report on NPR that headlined 200 Palestinians
killed and 400 wounded in an Israeli army operation in Gaza. This report
came from estimates by a nurse at the local hospital, which came from a
later version of the story posted on the NPR Web site. The radio report
emphasized corpses just lining hallways in the hospital.

The numbers may indeed be true. The operation was in an residential
neighborhood, so of course there were lots of deaths and injured
civilians.

In the Web story, the headline starts with the hostage rescue, then
discusses civilian deaths, far less anti-Israel's conduct of the war
than the radio version of the story.

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/08/nx-s1-4997026/israel-gaza-hostages-rescued

We learn later in the radio story, after the report stopped emphasizing the
dead and wounded Palestinian civilians, that the Israeli army had rescued
four hostages who were held captive in a house in this neighborhood.

Here's AP's version of the story, emphasizing jubilance in Israel about
the good news of the hostage rescue.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-8-6-2024-a5d1ef04763a5ed17de2d050ebc5d490

This version of the story tells us that one of the rescued hostages, Noa
Argamani, 25, was the subject of several videos showing her abduction,
so everyone in Israel knew who she was.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/06/08/israel-gaza-hostages-rescued/

Today's story from AP

Gaza's Health Ministry says 274 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raid
that rescued 4 hostages
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-06-09-2024-61eb1be9a9d0cf2dbf250cd4a8ed4dbf

At least the hostage rescue made it into the headline, even if
secondary. The first paragraph, second sentence, providing a summary
from the Israeli army that their forces came under heavy fire.

I'm sure the dead and wounded civilians were solely the responsibility of the
Israelis. By the second paragraph, the article generally emphasizes
civilian suffering during this mission.

In the fifth paragraph, we are reminded that the Hamas Health Ministry
does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in counting the
dead and wounded, nor is there independent verification of their
statements.

The location was one of those refugee camps from 1948 that became a
permanent camp.