In his recent Haaretz op-ed, dramatically titled “The crimes committed in Gaza are known, but Israelis prefer to forget them: Here is a reminder,” historian Lee Mordechai attempts to position himself as the moral compass for a supposedly amnesiac Israeli public. However, what Mordechai frames as a “reminder” is, in reality, a masterclass in omission and narrative manipulation.
By laundering Hamas-supplied statistics, stripping defensive military actions of their context, and misrepresenting international judicial proceedings, the piece does not remind Israelis of the truth. Instead, it demands they forget the fundamental reality of an existential war against a terror organization that strategically weaponizes its own civilian population.
In the following lines, we will dismantle several of Mordechai’s most egregious and baseless claims.
A trial is taking place against Israel for genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
It is worth noting the court didn’t rule (nor come close to ruling) that Israel is committing genocide. Former court president Judge Joan Donoghue publicly clarified how badly the decision was distorted. She stated unequivocally: The court never found a plausible claim that Israel is committing genocide. It merely affirmed Palestinians have a “plausible right” to protection from such acts, and South Africa can assert this. Thus, the ruling concerned theoretical rights under the Genocide Convention, making no factual findings about Israel’s actions.
It is also worth noting that the court rejected South Africa’s demand to obtain an international injunction requiring Israel to immediately halt all military operations in Gaza (like the order issued against Russia upon its invasion of Ukraine).
The legal logic is clear: Had the judges genuinely feared an active genocide, they would have halted the war. Instead, they allowed military operations to continue, merely demanding adherence to the laws of war (already mandated by orders from the Israel Defense Forces). This constitutes de facto recognition of Israel’s right to self-defense following Oct. 7, 2023.
Writers like Mordechai, on the faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, intentionally ignore South Africa’s resounding legal defeat to obscure the court’s refusal to tie Israel’s hands in eradicating a terrorist organization.
More than 73,000 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, and more than 173,000 were injured. These numbers are accepted by former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who determined that more than 10% of the Strip’s population was killed or injured. The numbers include at least 20,000 children. It is clear to everyone that this is an underestimate, and it is likely that the true mortality is higher.
The numbers “more than 73,000 killed and 173,000 injured” are exactly the figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza (as of summer 2026). Hamas controls this ministry, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, is not transparent and does not allow independent external verification.
Mordechai asserts that “it is clear to everyone that this is an underestimate,” but critical analyses of the casualty figures in Gaza have repeatedly shown the inclusion of natural deaths; misregistration of age and gender to inflate the proportion of “civilians” and children; a complete lack of reporting on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fatalities; and a reliance on unverified “media sources” reports at various stages of the war.
The most glaring omission in the paragraph is this: How many of the fatalities in Gaza are terrorists? The IDF has reported on tens of thousands of eliminated terror operatives, yet Mordechai gives the impression that not a single armed combatant lives in Gaza. This is deliberate factual negligence.
Using the figure “20,000 children” comes across as transparent emotional manipulation. The data adopts Hamas’s definition, according to which anyone under the age of 18 is a “child.” In practice, the terrorist organizations in Gaza systematically recruit, train and arm 15- to 17-year-olds. These “children” are often fully-fledged terror operatives.
Using former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to validate the Gazan Health Ministry’s data is a baseless leap. Acknowledging high casualties—an inevitable consequence of fighting terrorists who use human shields—does not mean he endorses Hamas’s specific numbers or fabricated demographic breakdown.
Israel prevented the entry of food for two-and-a-half months, which led to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians by starvation.
Claims of “hundreds” starved originate from the Hamas Health Ministry. While severe malnutrition occurred, “mass starvation” was never proven. Investigative reports exposed the starvation figures used against Israel as inflated and baseless. Confronted with actual caloric data, U.N. agencies and UNICEF quietly admitted that there was no famine in Gaza.
Israel systematically destroyed the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip.
While many Gaza hospitals were damaged, crucial context is omitted: Hamas built headquarters, tunnels and weapons caches inside them (for example, at Shifa Hospital, Nasser Hospital). Under international law, militarized medical facilities lose their protection and become legitimate targets. Calling this “systematic destruction” ignores the fact that Hamas actively transformed these hospitals into combat infrastructure.
Gaza has been destroyed. Two years after the start of the war, 81% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed. 90% of the energy infrastructure, 74% of the roads, and 88% of the above-ground water infrastructure have been destroyed. This is a partial list.
Mordechai presents data on the destruction of roads, buildings and infrastructure, as if Israel decided to destroy Gaza on a whim or out of a desire for revenge, without any strategic reason.
Yet he ignores a critical fact: Hamas built a massive military infrastructure beneath Gaza’s civilian areas. Its hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels were deliberately dug under roads, homes and utilities, making surface destruction inevitable. By turning houses and intersections into combat zones, Hamas made them legal military targets under the laws of war. Ignoring their militarization of civilian infrastructure is academic and journalistic dishonesty.
Mordechai’s “reminder” provides an academic veneer for anti-Israel propaganda. By erasing Hamas’s culpability, ignoring the militarization of civilian infrastructure and distorting the laws of war, he forfeits objectivity. True historical accountability demands confronting facts, not predetermined defamatory narratives.
