Where Have All the Fighters Gone?
There are some 15,000 Hamas fighters and far fewer Israeli soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip (the number is not published), so why do two major photo services have countless photos of Israeli soldiers and virtually none of Hamas fighters?
A search of Reuters and Associated Press photo services from Dec. 27 through today using the keywords “Gaza militant” and “Gaza fighter” turned up almost no pictures of Hamas fighters. The exceptions? Three photos from Reuters — an injured Palestinian fighter brought to Soroka Hospital in Israel for treatment (Jan. 5); relatives mourning over the body of slain fighter Mohammed Abu Shair (Jan. 5); and a wounded Palestinian policeman (Dec. 27).
In contrast, here were plenty of pictures of Israeli soldiers, Palestinian casualties, statesmen and diplomats, destruction in Gaza, and other related topics — but almost nothing on Hamas fighters.
This seems to be a repeat of the 2006 Lebanon war after which searches of the major photo services turned up not one picture of Hezbollah fighters (except at funerals) for the whole 34-day war.
Israel is not battling a ghost enemy. Nor is it battling Gaza’s civilian population, whose casualties show up in countless pictures. Which is just how Hamas likes it.
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