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March 27, 2009

Israel Minimizes Civilian Toll in Gaza Attack
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The Israeli government has released an investigation downplaying the
number of civilian deaths in its attack on the Gaza Strip. On Thursday,
the Israeli military gave a death toll of 1,166 and said most of the
dead were combatants. In Gaza, Khalil Abu Shammala of the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights dismissed the Israeli claims.

Khalil Abu Shammala: “All of the international human rights
organizations emphasized that Israel committed war crimes against the
Palestinians. Israel will try to deceive the people, will try to deceive
the international public opinion, in order to show that they did not
kill this huge number of the civilians during the last aggression on the
Gaza Strip.”

Palestinians say Israel killed more than 1,400 people, most of them
civilians.



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