According to one Palestinian doctor:
Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported Thursday that a doctor working in Gaza's Shifa Hospital claimed that Hamas has intentionally inflated the number of casualties resulting from Israel's Operation Cast Lead.
"The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter," according to the newspaper article.
The IDF pegs the casualty figure at twice that, which might indicate the Israeli focus on constantly updating the body count has itself caused an inflation in the number. The U.S. military has gone back and forth on this issue in Iraq, but for the most part avoids reporting on enemy casualties except in the case of more conventional operations like the battle with the Mahdi militia in Basra and Sadr City last year. The IDF has a much better view of the entire battlefield than one doctor, but given wide-spread public support for the operation in Israel, it certainly possible that the IDF was under some pressure create an impression of more, not less, destruction.
Either way, it's obvious the IDF went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties in an urban environment that made such efforts extremely difficult.
