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[Excerpt:]

"Also responding to the HRW report was Gerald Steinberg, the director of NGO Monitor, who said there was a fundamental problem with HRW’s methodology. "HRW had no people in Gaza during the war, so therefore everything they have to say is by definition based on hearsay and speculation – it is all based on secondary and tertiary reports," he said. "A Palestinian says he took a white flag out, and says Israelis shot him. We don’t know if that was part of tactics Hamas used, like Hizbullah did in Lebanon. Remember, Hamas used ambulances to smuggle in and launch rockets. HRW doesn’t know," Steinberg continued. Steinberg noted that all the organization’s reports on Gaza were based on what Palestinians said, or what other NGOs reported, or on what some journalists – who for the most part were also not in Gaza during the war – heard about afterward. "This is a basic methodological problem," he said. "If you are looking for a target, you will find people who will tell you what you are looking for." Steinberg said that after it ended, HRW made similar allegations about the IDF firing at people waving white flags during the Second Lebanon War, but that these turned out to be false."