Journalist (now academic) Ilene Prusher explains in an op-ed how she and other members of the media were deceived by
#Hamas over the decades.
"Opinion: I reported on Hamas in Gaza for over a decade. Here are the questions I’m asking myself now"
One important paragraph that is relevant to current casualty claims by Hamas: "Hamas also played fast and loose with facts they gave us reporters. During the first major Israel-Hamas war in 2008 to 2009, known as Operation Cast Lead, Hamas said that fewer than 50 of the 1,400 dead in Gaza had been combatants. But more than a year later, Hamas’ interior minister acknowledged in an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that between 600 and 700 of its militants were killed in that war. In that and in almost every war since, Hamas or other militant groups in Gaza launched rockets that fell unintentionally on their own citizens, but rarely if ever, owned up to the error, instead blaming Israel for the deaths."
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/opinions/israel-hamas-gaza-media-press-prusher/index.html
