This reminded me of what the released hostages from a month ago said:

Freed Israeli hostages held by Hamas were terrified IDF airstrikes would kill them

"We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you,"

Another released israeli hostage:

"The reality is that I was in a hideout that was bombed, and we became wounded refugees. This doesn't even include the helicopter that fired at us on our way to Gaza,"

Israel's conduct has been absolutely deplorable and indefensible from the moment they started indiscriminately bombing civilian homes. That doesn't make it ok to mock the deaths of innocent people, regardless of the circumstances.

This, x1000. It didn't used to be the case, but something snapped after Oct. 7. Hostages used to be famously sacred to Israelis, but something big changed. The hostages and their families have been treated terribly by the government.

For those unaware, Israeli soldiers executed three unarmed hostages who escaped from their captors about three weeks ago because they mistook them for unarmed Palestinians. Yeah.

So far, on average, they have been closer to the truth than the IDF's figures have been.

That's how trust works, when it isn't ideological.

Someone says something and later on when the truth is independently verified, or subsequent things prove the original claim to be true, you are more inclined to believe that person or group.

If someone says something, and later on it is proven untrue, you are less likely to believe that person or group.

When both sides of a conflict do both, you take the aggregate.

Israel has had a literal media policy of lying with exaggerated claims, with the view that people won't view corrections, for decades.

Does Hamas lie? Yeah, but not as systematically.

And you're surprised that people believe Hamas death toll numbers?

I trust the released hostages that confirm the IDF cares not whom they kill.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-troops-killed-hostages-mistaking-their-cries-help-ambush-military-2023-12-28/
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hostages-gaza-hamas-war-52fa9628e6284cdad6d7f7db6cc30742

The Guardian - Can we trust casualty figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry?

In the past, the US state department’s annual human rights report indirectly relied on the same ministry’s casualty figures in quoting UN statistics drawn from Palestinian data.

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said he saw no evidence that the numbers were being manipulated.

“We have been monitoring human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip for three decades, including several rounds of hostilities. We’ve generally found the data that comes out of the ministry of health to be reliable,” he said.

btw

Hamas is the government.

This whole 'Hamas is evil incarnate' thing is propaganda itself. Everyone hears Hamas and thinks militant.

Hamas is the government.

The pencil pusher ministry of health dude? Hamas.

The hospital administrator? Hamas

The non doctors without borders doctors? Hamas.

This is like calling every person that was a reservist in the IDF at the festival a combatant. It's as much of a lie.

I don't reflexively distrust things attributed to Hamas but if Israel says anything nowadays I assume it's a lie, and I don't really trust defenses of the IDF's behavior either. If there is no genocide in Gaza then they should send all the money back and there better be a thank-you card in the envelope.

Don't downvote me, give me my money back.

It seems pretty reliable that the hostages are dead.

The best case scenario is that Hamas is lying about the cause, and the IDF didn't kill them. That still means that the military campaign is obviously coming at the cost of these people's lives.

Netanyahu can save the hostages or water war, but not both. That's what a hostages situation is. He chose war, and the hostages are going to die if an outside force doesn't intervene.