MSNBC covered the breaking news on Tuesday of a potential deal to release some of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 terrorist attacks, but a startling statement by a military expert drew a real-time correction by anchor Ana Cabrera.

While discussing the hostage deal on MSNBC during Ana Cabrera Reports, Cabrera welcomed retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a long-time, go-to military analyst for the network, who explained the upsides to this possible deal:

Well, it’s thoroughly good news, there’s no question. I mean, some of these hostages, the 240 they are alleged to have in their custody right now are infants, tiny infants, they’re elderly, they’re people who have been tortured, abused. So if a substantial number can be brought out, it’s not just good news for their families and Israel, but a positive signal.

We need to remind ourselves, however, the only reason we’re at this point is the IDF went in and with surprisingly few casualties has now dominated the surface areas of most of the urban build-up in Gaza City. Hamas has gone underground. They’ve suffered devastating losses. The population has largely left the combat zone, which is a good thing to get into south Gaza, where humanitarian relief will be more readily likely to support them.

Despite McCaffrey’s claim of “surprisingly few casualties,” Israel’s war against Hamas has already killed thousands of people in the densely-populated Gaza Strip.

CNN reported on the latest toll numbers on Monday (emphasis ours):

At least 12,700 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 as a result of Israeli attacks, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which draws its data from Hamas-run health authorities in the enclave. At least 5,350 of those killed were children, it said.

According to a Washington Post analysis, that is one out of every 200 people in Gaza. Earlier this month, the Pentagon put the number of civilian casualties “in the thousands.”

As soon as McCaffrey was done with his response, Cabrera replied:

You mentioned the casualties, and I don’t think we can say with any sense of certainty that they’ve had relatively few casualties since Israel went into the Gaza area. By all accounts, reports are in the thousands of civilians that have have died. And we don’t have clear numbers because of our lack of access to Gaza to have independent verification there.

McCaffrey stood corrected after Cabrera asked him about the possibility of Hamas regrouping during a ceasefire:

Well, these are all political decisions at the end of the day. By the way, you’re right, the civilian losses have been undoubtedly extraordinary, even though I think the IDF has made every attempt to primarily target Hamas fighters. But, you know, going forward, every day, Hamas can stop the air campaign, can stop the drone flights, allows them to regroup, rearm, sort out their shattered command and control. Right now, they must be in real chaos. So there’s a cost to the truce. It’s likely, it seems to me, that we’re going to see a protracted period of lowered expectations on the part of the Israeli government that they’ll be able to destroy Hamas.

Watch the video above via MSNBC.

The post MSNBC Anchor Corrects Retired General Praising IDF for ‘Surprisingly Few Casualties’ in Gaza: There Have Been ‘Thousands of Civilian Deaths’ first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/v2an7Hg