Turning people into Numbers: How media coverage of Gaza erases human suffering

By confining news coverage to fatality figures inflicted by Israeli strikes on Gaza and lately Lebanon, the global media, particularly the Western agencies, do not identify victims. Figures do not convey information on what happened to people, their homes, their places of employment and worship. Occasional mention is made of hospitals treating victims but there is no coverage of their wounds or their survival. Figures dehumanise men, women, and children in active war zones, reduce them to cyphers, beings without power, influence and undeserving of existence.

Figures only sketch in a picture of the situation. This the case of the Gaza war figures which have been either manipulated or inadequate, The Palestinian health authorities report that more than 42,600 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 100,000 wounded and 11,000 are missing in Gaza during Israel's 12-plus month war on the Strip. It is said that 50-70 per cent of the casualties are women and children. This means at least 21,300 are men if the 50 per cent figure is correct and 12,780 if the figure is 70 per cent.

Oxfam's Small Arms Survey estimated that 6,000 women and 11,000 children out of 42,600 were killed in Gaza during the year from October 7th, 2023, while admitting that these are "conservative figures". This would make the total number of fatalities among women and children, 17,000. This would be 40 per cent, rather than 50 or 70 per cent. Nevertheless, Oxfam cites UN reports on Children and Armed Conflict which show that "over the last 18 years no other conflicts killed a higher number of children in one year".

The rarely mentioned fact is that not all male fatalities are fighters. Israel claims to have killed around 17,000 Hamas fighters while Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) says that data it collected from Israeli reports accounts for 8,500 fatalities among fighters out of pre-war forces of 25,000-30,000.

If Israel is correct, a total of 25,600 out of 42,600 are non-combatants. This means 8,600 male non-combatants have been killed. If ACLED is correct, the number of male non-combatants killed is 17,500. Dead male civilians should not be ignored and should count as well as dead women and children. 

These figures do not put faces to dead, wounded and living Palestinians in Gaza. Portraying them — adding flesh and blood — has been left largely to Palestinian journalists reporting to international and Arab television channels. Gazan bloggers have also played an admirable part in painting this picture, ensuring at least some Palestinians are seen as human beings.

The Western-dominated media has also deliberately characterised Israel's antagonists, Hamas and Hizbollah as being "pro-Iranian", "backed by Iran", or, worse still, "Iranian proxies". I have been told by journalists working for a major international agency that agency bosses say the Iranian connection must be made during the initial mention of both. This gives the false impression that Hamas and Hizbollah have no agency of their own and no freedom of action.

If local, regional and world media were fair or honest, they would refer to US sponsored or backed Israel to represent correctly Washington's long-term supine support for Israel. This also goes to a lesser extent for UK, French and German sponsorship of or backing for Israel.

Hamas is a national movement which resists Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and demands Palestinian self-determination in an independent state. Hamas was founded in 1987 without any assistance from Iran which did not provide aid to Hamas until the Fateh-dominated Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) began to pursue a peace deal with Israel in the early 1990s.

It must be recalled that PLO chairman Yasser Arafat was the first foreign leader to be invited to Tehran after the clerics under Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the pro-US-pro-Israel Shah in 1979. Why? Revolutionary Iran wanted to claim the "Palestinian card" which had previously been held at different times by Egypt, Syria and Iraq as the Palestinian cause is highly popular across the Arab world.

Israel and the US encouraged Qatar to support Hamas with funds until October 2023 to undermine the Fateh-led PLO and divide Gaza from the West Bank. No one speaks of Hamas as “Qatar-backed” although the movement’s senior leaders reside there.

Iran aided Lebanese Shia groups to resist Israel after its army invaded and occupied Lebanon from its southern border to Beirut during 1982. Hizbollah was created when these groups merged in 1985. After Israel pulled out of most of Lebanon, Hizbollah fought the Israeli army and its surrogates until they withdrew in 2000 from the area Israel had retained in the south.

While Iran has supported it with funds, arms and military advice, Hizbollah has become a major political actor in Lebanon with its own agenda and is not Tehran's proxy playing a part written by Tehran. By launching cross-border attacks against Israel on October 8th last year after Israel attacked Gaza, Hizbollah sought to open a second front to aid Hamas. Hizbollah risked Israeli retaliation against Lebanon even though Hamas did not inform Hizbollah of the plan to conduct the disastrous raid.

Hizbollah and Israel initially choreographed cross-border exchanges to avert all out conflict but in recent weeks Israel has escalated by attacking sites across Lebanon with the aim of degrading and weakening Hizbollah, Tehran’s main Arab ally, and transforming the Gaza war into a regional conflict. Israel previously involved Iran directly by bombing the Iranian mission in Damascus in April, killing senior Revolutionary Guard officers, and assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Hanieh in Tehran in July.