Israel says it has killed a number of high-profile terrorists in its targeting of Gaza.

Israel’s strongest blow to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a guerrilla-like army that participated in the previous rounds of fighting against Israel in 2009 and 2012, was the assassination of Salah Abu Hassanein, commander of its Military Media Division.

Mr. Hassanein oversaw Islamic Jihad’s psychological warfare, targeting the Israeli people and Gazans alike. A frequent interviewee since the Second Intifada that began in 2000, Mr. Hassanein’s face and voice were familiar to Gaza’s residents as was his message encouraging armed conflict with the Jewish state.

The Israeli army also killed PIJ’s regional commanders who controlled the northern and central sectors of the Gaza Strip, as well as Shaaban Dakhdoukh, commander of the forces in Zeitoun, who worked on burying long-range rockets and helped to smuggle weapons for his forces, according to the Israeli military.

Mahmoud Sinwar directed military activities, including rocket fire and was involved in the creation of attack tunnels into Israeli territory and the raid in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured.

The Israeli command believes it has also inflicted heavy losses on Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades, but the full extent is not yet known because many of the fighters’ bodies are believed to be buried beneath tons of rubble of destroyed tunnels where they had been hiding.

Mohammad Shaaban, commander of Al-Qassam’s naval force, was targeted and killed along with three other people while driving his car in Gaza City. Mr. Shaaban was behind Hamas’ increasing attempts to infiltrate into Israel from the sea in order to conduct mass killings in Israeli coastal communities, said the military.

Such an attempt was thwarted on the day of his killing, when five terrorists were intercepted by the army when they emerged onto the beach at Kibbutz Zikim where they were spotted by soldiers and killed.

Also dead in a targeted assassination is Osama Al-Hayyah, who commanded Al-Qassam’s forces in Shajaiah, the site of one of the earliest and fiercest battles of the Israeli operation. Mr. Al-Hayyah is the eldest son of Dr. Khalil Al-Hayya, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a founding member of Hamas.

Beyond the shooting war, there is a war of numbers seeking to justify the actions of the players in the eyes of the world. To accomplish this, Hamas seeks to create the belief that most – more than 80% — of the 1,137 Palestinians who died during the first two weeks of fighting are non-combatant women and children.

Israel, on the other hand, asserts that the process of identifying the dead is manipulated in order to predetermine the conclusion that Israel is slaughtering innocents rather than human shields put in harm’s way by Hamas.

Reuven Ehrilch of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center, an Israeli think tank, said its comparison study of the names of the Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge and the relationship between terror groups and uninvolved citizens revealed that out of 152 names checked, 71 were identified as terror agents and 81 were uninvolved citizens.

According to Mr. Ehrlich, the Hamas-controlled interior ministry has ordered social networking done in the Gaza Strip to describe every Palestinian who died as an “innocent civilian.”

Beyond the shooting war, there is a war of numbers seeking to justify the actions of the players in the eyes of the world. To accomplish this, Hamas seeks to create the belief that most – more than 80% — of the 1,137 Palestinians who died during the first two weeks of fighting are non-combatant women and children.

Israel, on the other hand, asserts that the process of identifying the dead is manipulated in order to predetermine the conclusion that Israel is slaughtering innocents rather than human shields put in harm’s way by Hamas.

Reuven Ehrilch of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center, an Israeli think tank, said its comparison study of the names of the Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge and the relationship between terror groups and uninvolved citizens revealed that out of 152 names checked, 71 were identified as terror agents and 81 were uninvolved citizens.

According to Mr. Ehrlich, the Hamas-controlled interior ministry has ordered social networking done in the Gaza Strip to describe every Palestinian who died as an “innocent civilian.”