Death Score, Human Shields, and Spin

302 Palestinians and 3 Israeli soldiers dead in the four-month-confrontation in Gaza.

Among the latest on the Palestinian side are two women (Amna Abu Oudah, 42, and Intissar Ali, 40) unarmed, shot down during a women's march towards a mosque where Palestinian men where besieged by Israeli troops. The marching women helped the Palestinian men escape just before the mosque roof collapsed.

The reports in the Israeli and western press are emphasizing the role of the women as "human shields" to exonerate Israel from any responsibility. The headline in the German copy of Spiegle says it all: "Human shields die in mosque attack." Trust me, this is going to be milked to the max by Israeli propaganda.

Hamas propaganda is already at it as well. I'm curious to see if they would confirm or deny that some of the men escaped the mosque dressed up as women. The Israelis are emphasizing this to score two points: first, when they shoot at women it is because what seems to be women are really men in disguise. Second, to emasculate the macho fighters who really cannot be that heroic if they are "hiding behind women" and,even worse, dressing up as women. Some of the Arab press is not reporting the detail about clothes. One commentator on Al Arabeyya site celebrated the "free women of Palestine" and contrasted them and the armed men to the "whores" and "deviants" who left the Jericho prison in their underwear. So this siege, and the way it ended (with the men escaping) is arleady being contrasted with that other siege, when Palestinian security forces were forced to surrender to the Israelis and were stripped down to their underwear in front of the world.