Casey Babb: It's false to suggest Israel's rescue op was a 'massacre'

Saying the IDF deliberately killed scores of civilians is not only dishonest and blatantly false, it is a symptom of being wildly uninformed

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On Saturday, the Israel Defence Forces, along with other branches of Israel’s security establishment, carried out Operation Arnon — a hostage rescue mission described by many as one of the most daring and complicated in military history. Disguised as displaced Palestinians, covert Israeli special forces made their way through dauntingly complex urban terrain controlled by Hamas and successfully rescued four Israeli hostages from two separate civilian homes.

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For Israelis, the Jewish diaspora and their allies, this hostage rescue was not only a desperately needed morale boost, it was a powerful reminder of just how far Israel will go to protect and save its own. Others, including Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia, described the operation as a “massacre.” This desperate mischaracterization of a country saving its own people from a genocidal terrorist group is terribly misleading.

For starters, data on civilian casualties is being reported by the very group responsible for the kidnappings — Hamas. While civilians were certainly and unfortunately killed in the operation, it is impossible to say how many of the reported 274 Palestinian........

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