In Short

No. Israel targets Hamas terrorists, not civilians — and goes to unprecedented lengths to minimize civilian harm, while Hamas deliberately endangers its own people.

Background

The accusation that Israel is “slaughtering innocents” in Gaza has become a rallying cry across the world. Protesters, pundits, and even some governments repeat claims that tens of thousands of Palestinians — mostly women and children — have been “massacred.” The figure is treated as fact, but it originates entirely from Hamas’s Health Ministry, a propaganda arm of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

Israel’s war is not against the Palestinian people. It is a war of defense against Hamas, which launched the October 7 massacre — murdering 1,200 Israelis, kidnapping 250 hostages, and firing thousands of rockets at civilians. Since then, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have targeted Hamas’s command centers, rocket sites, and tunnel networks — all intentionally built beneath schools, mosques, and hospitals.

The Truth: Hamas Controls the Narrative, Not the Facts

The so-called “Gaza death toll” comes exclusively from Hamas’s Ministry of Health. These numbers are not verified by any independent source, and even Hamas has admitted that data for over 11,000 of the claimed deaths is incomplete. The United Nations itself has acknowledged that Hamas’s reporting methods are “unknown.”

According to UN Watch, Hamas’s tally lumps together civilians and combatants, counts terrorists as “children” if they are under 18, and even includes those killed by Hamas’s own misfired rockets, which account for roughly one in five projectiles fired. The infamous explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital (October 2023) for example, initially blamed on Israel, was later proven by U.S. and Israeli intelligence to have been caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket that fell short.

By contrast, the IDF estimates that thousands of Hamas fighters have been killed, yielding one of the lowest civilian-to-combatant ratios ever recorded in modern urban warfare. The IDF also documents every strike, including video evidence showing Hamas militants operating from hospitals, schools, and UN compounds.

Israel’s Extraordinary Measures to Protect Civilians

Israel’s military is unique in modern warfare for how it warns civilians before attacking legitimate targets. According to the IDF’s official protocols:

• Phone calls and text messages are sent directly to residents in targeted buildings.
• Leaflets are dropped urging evacuation from Hamas military sites.
• “Roof-knocking” — a small, non-lethal strike on a roof — signals that an attack is imminent, giving civilians time to flee.
• Aerial strikes are often aborted if civilians are spotted in the target zone.

As Orly Goldschmidt, spokesperson for Israel’s embassy in London, explained in The Guardian:

“Israel never intentionally targets innocents. My country goes to great lengths to warn civilians of impending strikes… Hamas’s cynical use of innocent Palestinians as human shields is heartbreaking.”

These warnings are not theoretical — they are operational. The IDF has published dozens of recordings showing Hamas commanders urging civilians to ignore evacuation orders or physically blocking them from leaving. Hamas’s goal is not to save Gazans, but to maximize their deaths for propaganda value.

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Hamas’s Real Strategy: Using Civilians as Weapons

Hamas’s use of human shields is not an accident of war, it’s their doctrine. A NATO StratCom Centre report describes Hamas’s strategy as “using the presence of civilians to render military targets immune from attack.” Hamas has launched rockets from schoolyards, hidden tunnel shafts under hospitals, and turned mosques into weapons depots.

In 2014, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri openly bragged that “this strategy is proving itself,” urging Gazans to “adopt the practice” of surrounding targets to prevent Israeli strikes. Another Hamas official admitted: “For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry.”

This strategy serves two goals:

1. To protect Hamas fighters by embedding them among civilians.
2. To manipulate public opinion by producing images of civilian suffering and blaming Israel.

The result is a tragic inversion of morality: Hamas commits war crimes to generate headlines, while Israel is condemned for defending itself within the law.

Why the “Genocide” Narrative Collapses

Accusations of “genocide” are not only false — they invert reality. The American Jewish Committee notes that genocide requires an intent to destroy a people because of who they are. Israel’s stated objective is to destroy Hamas, not Palestinians. Its actions — from evacuation corridors to humanitarian aid convoys — demonstrate the opposite of genocidal intent.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s charter explicitly calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews everywhere. That is genocidal intent. Hamas initiated this war with a mass execution of civilians and continues to hide behind its own population.

Quotes

• UN Watch: “Hamas admitted that data was incomplete for over 11,000 of the fatalities it claims.”
• Orly Goldschmidt, Israeli Embassy (Guardian, 2024): “Israel never intentionally targets innocents.”
• NATO StratCom Centre (2025): “Hamas exploits Israel’s casualty sensitivity by using human shields and manipulating civilian deaths for international pressure.”
• American Jewish Committee (2025): “Israel’s actions show a consistent effort to spare civilians — the opposite of genocide.”

The Bottom Line

Israel is not targeting innocent civilians. Civilian suffering in Gaza is real, and it is the direct result of Hamas’s barbaric tactics, not Israel’s intent. Every warning Israel issues, every aborted strike, and every humanitarian corridor proves the same point: the only party seeking civilian deaths in Gaza is Hamas.

Sources

• UN Watch. Claim 43: Israel Has Killed More Than 30,000 Innocent Palestinians. 2024.
• Orly Goldschmidt. “Israel Never Targets Innocents Intentionally.” The Guardian, July 4, 2024.
• IDF Editorial Team. How the IDF Minimizes Harm to Civilians in Gaza. IDF, 2014.
• NATO StratCom Centre of Excellence. Hamas’ Use of Human Shields in Gaza. 2025.
• American Jewish Committee. 5 Reasons Why the Events in Gaza Are Not “Genocide.” September 16, 2025.