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Counting casualties in 2-year struggle in Mideast is a battle in itself
AP's toll: 678 Israelis, 1,934 Palestinians killed
By JASON KEYSER Associated Press
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Jerusalem -- A Palestinian blows himself up, killing Israeli soldiers, along with women and children. An Israeli missile kills a militant leader Israel holds responsible for the attack, along with women and children who happened to be nearby. And out come the scorecards in a grisly battle of numbers.
Beyond the tragedy of shattered lives, the death toll is itself part of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, with each side contesting the other's version to portray itself to world public opinion as the greater victim.
The meaning behind the figures depends in part on one's view of who's a combatant and who's a bystander.
The Associated Press re-examined the death toll to better determine how many people have died in the more than two years of fighting that followed the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks, and to say with more certainty who the victims were.
After a re-count of all the fatalities since Sept. 29, 2000, and in some cases renewed investigation of their circumstances, AP found that 1,934 people have died on the Palestinian side and 678 on the Israeli side as of Monday.
The numbers are based on interviews with doctors, relatives and witnesses, visits to hospitals and morgues, and statements by both sides' security forces.
Government and unofficial agencies on both sides also keep count, and their totals vary somewhat, reflecting some disagreements over what kinds of deaths to include.
But more profound are the disagreements over which types of casualties constitute "combatants" and which are "innocent civilians."
Israel's Foreign Ministry maintains no more than 45% of the Palestinian casualties of the conflict were "non-combatants," people who were neither involved in hostilities against Israel nor members of Palestinian armed groups.
But the Palestine Monitor, a think tank that tracks the violence, says 85% were "civilians" -- and appears to include in that category all who were not members of the Palestinian security forces, even if they belonged to various armed groups.
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