Left: Iyad Shurab (left) and his brother Wassim Shurab (right) in the uniform of the PIJ Al-Quds Battalions, both armed (saraya.ps). The picture was taken at a time when they were adolescents, further example of the recruitment of adolescents into the ranks of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

The findings to date

1.   This document is the sixth in a series of publications of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), as part of a project examining the names of the Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge. The project’s goal is to determine which of the fatalities are terrorist operatives and which are non-involved civilians, and to examine the ratio between them. The findings of our investigation so far (based on approximately 47% of the names of the dead) suggest that terrorist operatives constitute about 50% of the fatalities who have been identified, and non-involved civilians constitute approximately 50%. This ratio may vary as we continue our examination.

2.      The number of names of those killed, examined by the ITIC to date, based on the Palestinian Health Ministry’s lists, is around 900, i.e., about 42% of the number of Palestinians killed (a total of 2,157, according to a report by the Palestinian Health Ministry issued on September 14, 2014). From these lists we have removed duplicate names and added terrorist operatives, who do not appear on them (both for technical reasons and as a result Hamas’s policy of concealment and deception). After these adjustments, the total number of fatalities examined by the ITIC to date is 1,017, i.e., approximately 47% of the total number of fatalities.

3.      Weighting the findings of the current examination and the findings of the five previous examinations (detailed in the ITIC’s previous documents) indicates the following distribution of the 1,017 fatalities:

A.  435 of those killed were terrorist operatives.

B.  439 of those killed were non-involved civilians.

C.  143 people who were killed are unidentified at this stage. Therefore, we cannot determine whether they were terrorist operatives or non-involved civilians.

4.      Of the 874 dead who could be identified, terrorist operatives constitute approximately 49.8% of the names. Non-involved civilians constituteapproximately 50.2%. This ratio may vary as the ITIC continues to examine additional names of those killed. At this stage, we cannot identify 143 fatalities, constituting approximately 14% of the names.

Methodological notes

5.      The current document examined an additional basic list issued by the Palestinian Health Ministry and published by Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra. The list includes the names of 150 Palestinians, most of whom were killed from July 23 to July 26, 2014.

6.      In this document as well, to the number of dead who appeared on the Palestinian Health Ministry’s list we added 25 terrorist operatives who were killed in battle in Shejaiya and whose names have not yet been published(as we did in the three previous documents). To date, a total of 100 terrorist operatives have been added to the basic lists issued by the Palestinian Health Ministry (four groups of 25 operatives). This was done in order to balance the bias that was created due to Hamas’s policy of concealment (for an explanation of our methodology, see Part Three of the examination of the names of Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge). If Hamas publishes reliable data about its operatives who were killed (who do not appear on the Palestinian Health Ministry’s lists), the number of operatives who were added will be adjusted accordingly.

The findings of the current examination

7.      An examination of an additional 150 names that appeared on the Palestinian Health Ministry’s list (see Appendix C), with the addition of 25 terrorist operatives whose names have not yet been released (a total of 175 names), yielded the following findings:

A.  55 of those killed were identified as terrorist operatives (photos of 31 terror operatives were found, see Appendix B). To this figure we added 25 terrorist operatives whose organizational affiliation is unknown (killed in battle in Shejaiya). Hence, the total number of terrorist operatives who were killed is 80.

B.  73 names were identified as non-involved civilians.

C.  The ITIC couldn’t identify 22 names that appeared on the Palestinian Health Ministry’s list, and has designated them as unidentified.

8.      Below is a breakdown of the organizational affiliation of the 80 terrorist operative fatalities:

A.  33Hamas operatives (mostly members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, plus a small number who served in other Hamas bodies).

B.  17 PIJ / Al-Quds Battalions operatives

C.  Two DFLP operatives

D.  One operative in Fatah’s operational network (Abd al-Qader al-Husseini Battalions)

E.  One Salafist-jihadi organization operative (Army of Islam / Popular Resistance)

F.  26 terrorist operatives whose organizational affiliation is unknown

9.      Of the 153 fatalities who have been identified, 80 are terrorist operatives, representing approximately 52% of the fatalities who have been identified. 72 of those killed were non-involved civilians, representing approximately 48% of the fatalities who have been identified.

Appendices [see full document in PDF format]

10.   This document includes three appendices:

A.  Appendix A:Table presenting the findings of the examination of 150 additional names of those killed in Operation Protective Edge, based on a list released by the Palestinian Health Ministry’s spokesman, Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra.

B.  Appendix B: Photos of 31 terrorist operatives who appear on Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra’s list.

C.  Appendix C: An additional 150 names (in Arabic), according to a list released by Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra and examined by the ITIC.

D.  Appendix D:Additional information and correction of errors that occurred in the previous documents.

Full Document in PDF Format

[*] Further to the ITIC Information Bulletin from September 23, 2014: “Examination of the names of Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge – Part Five.”

This article was originally published on October 7, 2014, on the Meir Amit website under the title “Examination of the names of Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge – Part Six.”