CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson joined Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday’s CNN News Central to discuss the latest news surrounding the Israel-Hamas War when he spread fake news about Palestinian casualty estimates and used the same “slaughter” verb to describe October 7 and Israel’s response to it.
Blitzer asked, “if an agreement doesn't materialize in the coming hours, and we all hope there is an agreement to extend this truce, what actually would begin to happen on the ground? What could it look like when military operations resume?”
Watson replied that, “I think it would look a lot like it did before six days ago and potentially, much, much worse. I mean, as Oren has pointed out, the Israeli government has made it clear it wants to destroy Hamas in Gaza. And as part of six-and-a-half weeks of fighting there, the death toll, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, has been more than 14,800 Palestinian civilians killed.”
First of all, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank is just regurgitating whatever numbers the Hamas-controlled Gaza feeds them. Second, nowhere in those reports does it say every death is a civilian. That is implied because Hamas assumes people like Watson will dutifully repeat it, but it is not actually true.
Moving right along, Watson declared, “So if the fighting resumes again, that slaughter of Palestinian civilians will likely resume again.”
Watson wrapped up his thoughts by adding, “It’ll be complicated by the fact that 1.2 million of those Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced due to bad sanitation, sewage, and destroyed infrastructure, many of them are suffering, the World Health Organization, from disease that may kill, the WHO says, more people than the actual fighting will kill as well. And all of these military operations, of course, in retaliation for the initial Hamas slaughter of more than 1,200 people on October 7th. Wolf?”
With that Watson used the same word to describe the deliberate murder of Israeli civilians including babies and the elderly and Israel’s right to defend itself. If Israel wanted to slaughter Palestinian civilians, it would’ve turned every Hamas-utilized hospital into a hole in the ground, but it didn’t.
As for Blitzer, he concurred, “That's why it is so important to extend this temporary truce and allow more hostages to leave, to delay any Israeli military action. To allow more humanitarian aid to get into Gaza at the same time. Lots at stake right now.”
Including what’s left of CNN’s integrity, if they even had any left to begin with.
Here is a transcript for the November 29 show:
CNN News Central
11/29/2023
1:08 PM ET
WOLF BLITZER: So Ivan, if an agreement doesn't materialize in the coming hours, and we all hope there is an agreement to extend this truce, what actually would begin to happen on the ground? What could it look like when military operations resume?
IVAN WATSON: Well, I think it would look a lot like it did before six days ago and potentially, much, much worse. I mean, as Oren has pointed out, the Israeli government has made it clear it wants to destroy Hamas in Gaza. And as part of six-and-a-half weeks of fighting there, the death toll, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, has been more than 14,800 Palestinian civilians killed. So if the fighting resumes again, that slaughter of Palestinian civilians will likely resume again.
It’ll be complicated by the fact that 1.2 million of those Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced due to bad sanitation, sewage, and destroyed infrastructure, many of them are suffering, the World Health Organization, from disease that may kill, the WHO says, more people than the actual fighting will kill as well. And all of these military operations, of course, in retaliation for the initial Hamas slaughter of more than 1,200 people on October 7th. Wolf?
BLITZER: That's why it is so important to extend this temporary truce and allow more hostages to leave, to delay any Israeli military action. To allow more humanitarian aid to get into Gaza at the same time. Lots at stake right now.
