Letter: The Myth of “Gaza School Yards”

Dear editor:

Since October 7, 2023 the mainstream media led by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian  and the Associated Press has pontificated about deaths in Gaza school yards implying that the Jewish people of Israel intentionally target Gaza school yards to kill innocent six- and seven-year-old Arabs just going to school. Constantly repeating the fact of deaths in Gaza school yards allows antisemitic journalists to virtue signal with each other about Jews intent on killing Arab children and thereby inflame an otherwise ignorant public.

Of course the mainstream media never mentions who most of these dead Arabs are; they simply rely on the constant refrain of “school yards” to be determinative that the dead are all small school children.

Then on August 10 the cat was let out of the bag. 

The euphemism of “school yards” was ripped wide open and many of the dead Arabs in these school yards were revealed to be nothing more than jew killers from Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad who were killed before they could initiate another October 7 as promised by the leaders of Hamas:

• Yissuf Saidal-Wadoya (Hamas Operative);
• Shadi Radafal (Hamas Operative);
• Murrad Dhamaleh Abu Malek (Combat Propaganda Operative in Palestine Islamic Jihad):
• Abed el- Aziz Musbah el Kfarneh (Hamas Emergency Communities Operative);
• Muhammad Hassan Abu Saada (Hamas Military Intelligence Operative);
• Barham Ziad al Jabari (Combat Propaganda Operative in Palestine Islamic Jihad);
• Ahmed Ahmed al-Jahari (Fire Cell Commander in Palestine Islamic Jihad);
• Ahmed Ihab Baker al Jaabari (Palestine Islamic Jihad Operative); 
• Ihab Baker al Jaabari (Hamas operative);
• Mohammed Jabar Harrarab (Deputy Cell Commander of Hamas);
• Munther Nasser Daher (Palestine Islamic Jihad Operative);
• Amgad Yemini (Platoon Commander in Hamas);
• Moamen Jaber Habib (Hamas Operative);
• Mohammed Ramadan Eshtewe al- Ghafei (Hamas Operative);
• Achraf Rafiq al- Abed al Ghafei (Hamas Operative);
• Abdalla Samir Abdalla al Areer (Palestine Islamic Jihad Cell Commander); 
• Abed al -Karin Rashdi Hamed (Hamas Operative);
• Yossef Al Kahlut (Member of Hamas Senior Leadership);
• Muhammed Taif (Hamas Operative)

This is the reality of every “schoolyard” in Gaza which have always been nothing more than staging areas for Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad jew killers. The evidence — names and military status — is right there for all non antisemitic journalists to report. 

Of course antisemitic journalists at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press only report about “schoolyards” never mentioning the easily identifiable Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad jew killers who populate these “school yards”  so their readers think only five- and six-year-olds are prancing innocently throughout.

Of course civilians are killed in this urban warfare. The difference in Gaza is the incredibly low ratio of civilians killed versus enemy combatants killed as compared to every other modern war.  

These latest May 8 United Nations Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs numbers demonstrate that in Gaza the ratio of civilian deaths to enemy combatants is 1:1 — the lowest in the history of warfare as confirmed by Major John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the US Military Academy at West Point. Even in Afghanistan the ratio was 4:1 which was considered excellent at the time. The IDF has set a standard for limiting civilian casualties in urban warfare that has never been achieved before.

Further, Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, and head of the international terrorism team at the British Joint Intelligence Committee has said:

“My experience of monitoring the IDF actions, is that Israel is taking absolutely unprecedented and extremely effective measures to minimize civilian deaths. Despite what many people proclaim, who know nothing about it, [is that] Israel has achieved what I estimate to be the lowest proportion of civilian to military casualties in any conflict in modern times.”

Kemp estimates the IDF has probably killed around 0.8 civilians for every Hamas kill, while in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ratios were five-to-one and three-to-one.

“The measures they take have not been seen by any other army anywhere in history” he said. (Australian Jewish News.com, 5/9/24)

The mainstream media studiously buries the antisemitic genocidal actions of Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad against Jews with euphemisms like “schoolyards” and “hospitals” and an intentional decision to never identify the names and military status, easily available, of the thousands of enemy combatants killed by Israel in a defensive war to prevent endless October 7ths as the leadership of Hamas has promised.

Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida