Breaking News, War Zones, Open Source Intelligence

Let me open this by stating the obvious. Civilians killed or injured in wartime are horrible. We all should remember this point. It is men, women, and children paying the price with their lives. But what follows is some severe criticism of the media. And by media, I mean large Western media who should know better.

If you were online yesterday or were watching legacy media, you were exposed to a story of a hospital that was hit and destroyed. After almost two years of watching the Ruso-Ukraine war, ten years of EMS, and over ten years of independent journalism, I have learned. All initial reports are always suspect. I don’t care who issues them.

So, if you were online or listening to the news, you probably heard the breathless reporting of five hundred casualties. They also had this press release on firing a rocket toward Haifa. As we all know, there was no impact on Haifa. It went away as well. And as of this morning, Richard Engel was still playing that game. It’s not conflicting information, Richard when even DoD tells you it was the Islamic Jihad, a smaller group within the strip.

Now, as to the number of dead and injured. This did not land in a hospital. It landed in a courtyard. Three vehicles were destroyed, and having worked in EMS, thirty to fifty people dead and injured are possible. So remember…