Hamas accuses Israel of trying to mislead the world

Hamas called on the international community not to pay attention to the false Israeli reports on last summer’s war on the Gaza Strip and to hold the occupation’s leaders accountable for the crimes they committed, which were documented in independent international reports.

In a statement issued by the movement in response to a report issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry stating that most of the war’s victims were armed fighters, Hamas said it believes: “The occupation continues to ignore international humanitarian law and monopolises its interpretation in line with its own point of view. The crime becomes more horrible with Netanyahu’s allegation.”

The movement strongly denounced the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s report, saying it “justifies its army’s crimes during the savage aggression on the Gaza Strip [that lasted] 51 days during the summer of 2014, which completely contradicts independent international reports.”

It said Israel released this report at this particular time to justify its war crimes and to give them a legal cover, which is worse than the crimes themselves. The fact that Israel is defending and justifying its crimes, Hamas said, means it intends to continue with its policy of killing and destruction against the Palestinian people.

Hamas accused Israel of issuing the report as a “pre-emptive” step to dominate international media before the Schabas Commission’s report is submitted to the UN Security Council.

The movement refuted the report’s allegations, saying that the report manipulates figures, defies logic and it alters the details of what happened on the ground during the Israeli attack on Gaza.

On 7 July 2014, Israel waged an attack on the Gaza Strip that lasted 51 days and included air raids and ground and sea attacks. Nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli offensive, most of them civilians, while a further 100,000 had their homes destroyed. Some 73 Israelis were killed, including 67 soldiers.