‘How Does Israel Justify Killing So Many Innocent People?’
CNN host confronts Israeli spokeswoman over carnage in Gaza
A CNN host persistently challenged a spokesperson for the Israeli government over the horrific death toll mounting in Gaza.
However, despite the on-camera efforts of CNN’s Erin Burnett, Israeli spokeswoman Tal Heinrich refused to budge from the pat talking points of the right-wing government she represents.
The killing of seven international aid workers in the Gaza Strip when their convoy came under fire on Monday night by Israeli forces has brought fresh scrutiny to the operations of the Israeli military, despite the fact that some 33,000 Palestinians also have been killed since Israel’s hostilities began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. That includes thousands of young children and women.
Burnett squared off with Heinrich in a tense interview Tuesday.
“So let me ask you about something that is a painful truth, and that is the fact that tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed since this began, and many of them are innocent people. And we can talk about what the numbers are, but that is a reality on the ground,” Burnett said. “Just the past few days, Tal, we have all been confronted with these images from al Shifa, right, the hospital, and after the 14-day siege that the [Israeli military] was conducting, and they say that obviously there were Hamas operatives there, and that that’s what they were targeting. The hospital’s been obliterated, there are bodies everywhere. Obviously, it’s no longer functional.
“You say this is necessary to eradicate Hamas. But I do wonder, when you talk about inconvenient truths, how does Israel justify killing so many innocent people in this?” she added.
Heinrich attempted to minimize the Palestinian carnage by trying to undermine the credibility of the casualty numbers although no one in the international community has seriously disputed those figures.
“First, I am glad that you said that we need to discuss these numbers because we — because we have to take Hamas’ numbers with a huge spoon of salt, not a grain of salt, because what I can tell you the facts and the truth, according to our assessment and the facts that we have in that, is that we eliminated more than 13,000 Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists,” Heinrich said. “We took out, you know, 19 of the Hamas battalions out there. One of the reasons why we have to operate in Rafah, for instance, the southern city in Gaza, is because we need to take out the four remaining battalions. We’re talking about 7,000, 8,000 terrorists there.
“So the reason why we have to eradicate Hamas, and you also brought up this point, is because you and I don’t want to sit here in six months, a year, two years, and have this conversation again.”
Burnett pushed back, however: “But, Tal, aren’t we going to be sitting here? Because a lot of the people there that are losing people in their lives are children, and if they survive, they’re going to grow up.
“And what are they going to think about Israel? What are they going to do? I mean, how can you all actually say you’re eradicating terrorism and eradicating Hamas in the context of what’s actually happening in Gaza?” the CNN host asked.
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