What the Islamic Republic massacres of Iranians suggests about the deaths of Gazan civilians

The Islamic Republic massacred tens of thousands of Iranians in just a couple of days.

Remember: Hamas is no less brutal than the Islamic Republic, and it crushes internal dissent with comparable ruthlessness.

Of the roughly 30,000 Gazan civilians reported killed over the last two years, how many were Hamas directly responsible for? Hamas is indirectly responsible for all of them — by initiating the war and by fighting deliberately from civilian centers. But that’s not the whole question.

We have repeatedly seen anti-Hamas demonstrations inside Gaza, and we have seen them violently crushed. In Iran, we know how quickly such crackdowns can turn into mass slaughter — thousands murdered in a heartbeat. There is no reason to assume Hamas operates differently.

In that light, one should be skeptical of the comforting assumption that Hamas directly murdered only a small fraction of Gazan civilians. The true number may be far higher.

And there is another clue. Compared with Iran, we see remarkably little authentic documentation of the dead in Gaza. Instead, we see AI imagery, staged “Pallywood,” and tightly controlled narratives. One obvious possibility is that much of the missing evidence would point not outward, but inward — to Hamas culpability.