Hamas’s strategy is clearly to ensure as many civilians as possible are 'martyred.' When that fails, it makes up numbers to fit its narrative

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Whatever you think of Hamas and its allies, there can be no doubt that they have perfected the art of public relations.

Since Hamas launched its war with Israel on October 7, it has cited high death rates, especially among women and children, to further its false claim that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza. And no matter how much evidence shows that the terrorist organization is padding the numbers, western media continue to cite them as gospel.

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On Saturday, I woke up to some of the best news to come out of Israel in months: a joint operation conducted by the Israel Defence Forces, the Shin Bet intelligence agency and Israel Police successfully rescued four hostages from Hamas captivity.

The initial reports I read in Israeli media suggested that around 50 Palestinians had been killed in the raid. The IDF later revised that number to “under 100.” But it didn’t take long for much of the media to start citing wildly higher figures given by Gazan health officials and characterizing the rescue op as some sort of a mass slaughter.

The Qatari state broadcaster Al-Jazeera tweeted a breaking news story about the rescue at 6:48 a.m. ET. Not long after, it posted another story citing “dozens” killed in Israeli raids that didn’t even mention the hostages. By Sunday, the headline on the story was changed to, ‘Bodies Scattered on Streets’: Israel Kills 226 in Central Gaza Attacks.

Western media also reported Hamas’s casualty figures uncritically. The Washington........

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