Sam Kru

Father, Husband, Insurance Broker living in and working from North West London.

[John Spencer @SpencerGuard]

“They are killing enormous numbers of civilians…they are targeting one, two, three enemy combatants and in the process killing huge numbers of civilians. @piersmorgan Piers a few minutes later – “If you can’t say exactly how many civilians have been killed in Gaza, what you say about numbers is bull.”

Dear @piersmorgan I tried to explain to you where numbers in the Gaza war (or any war) are going to come from "simply.” But let me type it out so you have a record of it instead of the interruptions and the tactic of just asking the same question over and over while I explain how the numbers work. The same numbers by the way that you used minutes before to criticize Israel and constantly repeat or have guests on that repeat, or more often state not even Hamas numbers but false numbers about xx civilians, xx women, xx children, xx percentages that go beyond Hamas's actual list of casualties.

First, let me correct you again (like I did to start the segment) by providing you my actual quotes:

1 - "Israel and the IDF have implemented more measures (sometimes quoted as precautions) to prevent civilian harm in urban warfare than any military in history,"

That is testable against urban warfare history of any similar situation (mostly attack of defended urban terrain). Israel civilian harm mitigation measure have included advance notification (flyers, phone calls, text messages, voicemails, drones with speakers, tv, radio, social media), safe corridors to include improving roads used for safe corridors in the middle of the war, roof knocking (notifying all residents of a building in advance for evacuations and then using non-penetrating low-yield munitions on top of the building before then waiting to strike), over daily multi-hour pauses in fighting (over 400 days of the 800 days of fighting) to allow civilian evacuations and aid movement, establishing a one-star commanded civilian harm mitigation cell that created a real time civilian presence (using cell phone presence, drones, satellite images, etc.) software reflected on all combat operating systems, handing out their own military maps to the entire population (to include the enemy) and then communicating the location of IDF operations, areas to avoid or further evacuate, using major call outs of buildings and neighborhoods, restrictive rules of engagement based on likely civilian presence, rigorous fires processes and legal reviews that often ended in calling mission off out of civilian harm estimates. Many of these measures have never been attempted, by any military.

2 - "Israel has a lower civilian to combatant ratio than any similar context (war or battle) in the history of urban warfare.” After acknowledging the lack of comparative cases (size of enemy forces (which I asked you about, you don't know), tunnels, density, strategy, tactics, prevention of civilian evacuations) but still doing the simple analysis, in order to provide the evidence for this statement I use the same numbers you and your frequent guests push to condemn Israel. But here:

Q: How do you estimate the number of civilians deaths?

A: Take the number the Hamas Gaza Health Ministry reports (despite that it includes any death in Gaza for any reason or cause (Israel/Hamas/Other terrorists) and has been well documented with inaccuracies (even having to be updated by Hamas of natural deaths, incomplete entries, false entries) and subtract the Israel stated combatant deaths.

The Hamas Gaza Health Ministry claims roughly 72,000 deaths in Gaza. The IDF says it has killed about 25,000-26,000 combatants, a number also reported by President Trump in October 2025. If you subtract 25,000 from 72,000, even using Hamas’s number at face value, you get roughly 47,000 non-combatant deaths, or a bit less than a 2:1 ratio. If you were modest to adjust for natural deaths and Hamas-caused deaths, is likely closer to 35,000–40,000 non-combatant deaths versus 25,000 combatants killed, which puts the ratio closer to 1.5:1.

If you compare 2:1 or 1.5:1 to any numbers we have (in many cases we don’t have) for wars, urban centric wars, contested urban battles they will be some of the lowest ratios (in some cases lowest by far) ever seen despite none of those wars or battles had the context of Gaza. For example:

World War II – 70 million civilians, 20 million combatants, 3.5:1
Korean War – 2.5 million civilians, 90,000 combatants, 27:1
Iraq War – 280-300,000 civilians, 150-200,000 combatants, 1.4:1 to 2:1

But wait, the Gaza numbers are usually aggregated numbers for the entire war, any death ever reported in Gaza.

But if you disaggregate the numbers to specific battles like Rafah, Khan Yunis, Gaza City 2025 for comparison you get different numbers. Based on modest numbers from the Battle of Rafah, the civilian to combatant ratio would be more like 1:100 due to multiple operational variables like the success of civilian evacuations.

Major urban battles (modest comparison of battles with any like variables).

Mosul – 10,000 civilians. Combatant unknown but total estimate in battle 5,000 – 2:1
Manila – 100,000 civilians. Combatants 17,000 – 6:1
Seoul – Unknown/no record of civilian but very likely high ratio based on histories
Mariupol – Unknown/mass graves, estimate 20-22,000 civilians, 3-8,000 combatants - 2.5:1 to 7.3:1

I actually use this discussion about numbers or quote about ratio sparingly despite how many times it has been attribute to me because I know the complexity of casualty counting especially in urban centric wars with combatants that violate the law of war and do not distinguish themselves (uniforms/marking) making determining a body found (if there is a body) or a name reported (such as methods in Gaza) and then classifying that person as was participating in the hostilities (combatant) or not (noncombatant) is beyond just difficult and should always be viewed as questionable. In Mosul, a year after the battle there was not only no agreed upon casualty number, but the Mayor of the city also said there were 40,000 civilian deaths. These numbers are always messy, political, susceptible to manipulation by the different organizations involved.

My point has always been that numbers of casualty reporting in Gaza doesn’t paint the story people routinely push. Actually, the opposite.

Urban warfare is inherently and historically costly against civilians and the infrastructure. All wars involve noncombatant death. The moral, legal requirement is to do proportionality assessments and take feasible steps to prevent excessive civilian harm.

So, using your logic Piers, if you can’t state how many combatants were killed (by Israel, Hamas, terrorist rockets, other terrorists in power struggles) … you can’t say (or allow your guests to say) Israel has killed a “large number of civilians” or “killed a disproportionate number of civilians” like you did in this very interveiw.

You can't spend years saying Israel is killing enormous numbers of civilians and then tell me nobody can estimate civilian deaths so ratios aren't valid. Those two positions can't both be true.

If casualty estimates are reliable enough to accuse Israel, then they're also reliable enough to examine civilian-to-combatant ratios. If they aren't, then they shouldn't be used selectively only when they support one conclusion.

[Israel Foreign Ministry @IsraelMFA]

On June 1–2, 1941, a mob of rioters incited by Nazi-aligned Iraqi nationalists unleashed a brutal pogrom against Baghdad’s Jewish community. Hundreds of Jews were murdered, thousands were injured, and Jewish homes and businesses were looted and destroyed.

At the time, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, was living in Baghdad. An ally of Nazi Germany, he spread virulent antisemitic propaganda and fueled anti-Jewish hatred.

Known as the Farhud, this massacre marked the beginning of the end of Iraq’s 2,600-year-old Jewish community. In the following years, Iraqi Jews were forced to flee, mostly finding refuge in Israel.

Today, no Jews remain in Iraq.

[Yehuda Teitelbaum @chalavyishmael]

Here's a list of parades attended by Zohran Mamdani:

☘️ St. Patrick's Day Parade

🇵🇰 Pakistan Day Parade

🇨🇳 Lunar New Year Parade

🇵🇷 Puerto Rican Day Parade

🇩🇴 Dominican Day Parade

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Day Parade

🇮🇳 Sikh Day Parade

🌴 West Indian Day Parade

✊ African American Day Parade

🏳️‍🌈 Pride Parade

Here's a list of parades deliberately not attended by Zohran Mamdani:

🇮🇱 Israel Day Parade.

To be clear, I don't want him there.

But don't tell me that this man doesn't straight up hate Jews.

[Israel Foreign Ministry @IsraelMFA]

For over two years, the UN laundered Hamas propaganda, manufactured fake aid statistics, and called it "authoritative data."

Today, the curtain comes down.

The systematic information manipulation machine operating under the UN is now exposed. See the evidence for yourself: 👇
https://t.co/C0s1l6PsOa

[habibi @habibi_uk]

Today's London hate march is off to a great start. "ZOG" means "Zionist occupied government". It is a term coined by the American racist far right.

This is the "forming up" point, where violent racist messages are obviously welcome.

h/t @uprising_1

[Israel Foreign Ministry @IsraelMFA]

Months ago, the Civil Commission approached the New York Times with a report on Hamas’ systematic sexual violence on Oct. 7 and after. The @nytimes said it was not interested.

This comprehensive and well-documented report was published this morning by CNN and other international outlets.

Aware of the report and its release date, the night before its release the NYT ran a shameful attack on Israel, belittling Hamas’ sexual crimes.

That tells you everything about the NYT's agenda.

[Nick Timothy MP @NJ_Timothy]

The conversation in Jewish families is, as Trevor Phillips said this morning, “who among our friends would save us?” We are in an undeniable crisis of antisemitism, and many are asking whether they need to leave Britain.

Many have already done so.

This is heartbreaking, but the time for weak words is over. We need to be unsparingly honest about what is happening, and what we can do about it.

Antisemitism is an ancient disease, and there is no point pretending it does not come from several sources. We saw the surge in antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. It has been partly purged, but there are some - like Naz Shah - on the Labour benches who have made antisemitic statements in the past.

We saw in the Maccabi Tel Aviv scandal that Labour are up to their necks in corruption and communalism in places like the West Midlands. Starmer and Mahmood got away with this - but they knew the police and council had worked together to ban the Israeli fans. They didn’t intervene to stop it because they didn’t see the problem. But the scandal happened because the authorities took the side of Islamists over Jews.

Now we see the surge of the Greens - a party absolutely riven with sectarianism and antisemitic candidates and activists.

And on the online right, we’re starting to see some of the antisemitic language we’ve seen emerge in the recent years in America. It’s not at all of the same scale - but that could change and it would be wrong to ignore it.

Above all though - and this is where too many find it difficult to tell the truth - we have an undoubted antisemitism problem among the Muslim population.

Polls show among British Muslims:

- Around half say “Jews have too much power over UK government policy.”
- Four in ten say the same for the media and the financial industry.
- Only one in four believe Hamas committed rape and murder on 7 October.
- Only one in four believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish homeland.
- Around half feel more sympathy with Hamas than Israel.

When people ask why Britain - for so long previously a welcoming place for Jews - suddenly has such a problem, this is obviously the most significant change. The official Muslim population here has doubled from 1.6 million in 2001 to over four million today. Some studies suggest seventeen per cent of our population will be Muslim by 2050.

Only around half of Muslims in Britain today were born here. And the countries from which Muslim immigrants are coming often have entrenched antisemitic cultures. Pakistan, Somalia, the Middle East. We are importing hatred that should never be welcome here.

We are faced with a choice between keeping our Jewish citizens and receiving more and more people from these places. The choice we should make ought to be obvious.

We should deport any foreigner who espouses this hatred. We should show zero tolerance to any British nationals who incites hatred and violence. We have to clamp down on the hate marches, and lock up those who are guilty of public order offences and incitement - including anybody who calls to “globalise the intifada” and chants “death to the IDF.” Above all, we have to stop importing hatred and extremism and antisemitism from countries where we know these things are rife.

I waited a few days after the Golders Green attack before commenting because I wanted to see what the reaction would be. Unfortunately it was exactly as anticipated: weak words, no action, promises to build higher walls around our Jewish citizens. But I am not willing to sit here and watch as my friends discuss with their loved ones whether they should give up on Britain and emigrate.

As a country, we have a choice to make - and my choice is to stand unequivocally with Britain’s Jews.

[The Jewish Idea @TheJewishIdea]

This is a powerful 4 minutes. Want to understand how Jews are feeling? Watch this.

[Jonathan Sacerdoti @jonsac]

@mehdirhasan @MarinaPurkiss Of course I have, Mehdi.

https://t.co/SzAfRzSvV3

If a book is too much for her to manage these days, though, she might start with your most memorable piece on Muslim antisemitism https://t.co/zKDW8wj9LI

[Brodie Mitchell @BrodieMitchell1]

LAST NIGHT I was assaulted walking home alone from the train station, 3 mins from Royal Holloway campus. A car flew past and launched a cup full of liquid at the back of my legs - no words, they just sped off. I called 999. Police attended. This is now part of my 3 live hate crime investigations.

My “tea towel” keffiyeh comment got me suspended and kicked out the SAME DAY.
Yet I’ve been reporting months of antisemitic & homophobic no-caller-ID harassment from pro-Palestine students (10 calls an hour) from Sep to January. The uni admitted they identified the callers… then did NOTHING.

The boyfriend (white Muslim convert) doxxed me & my Jewish friend online, called us spies against Muslims, @TRobinsonNewEra bootlickers, and said “the whole of RHUL will be on your doorstep.”

Yesterday the RHUL Wellbeing team sent me a copy-paste reply to my January report - same generic email they sent my Jewish friend. It’s May and they haven’t concluded any of the investigations. I replied: “I am not safe here. If something happens to me on campus it’s down on all of you at Royal Holloway.”

Hours later I was attacked.

RHUL Friends of Palestine labelled me on Instagram a “racist attacker” and “Islamophobic threat”, posted “he’s back on campus”, and their group chat is circulating Jewish students’ photos for harassment. Comments: “Brodie needs to get jumped” this builds on already existing messages like, “I’m gonna murder this racist prick.”

The Wellbeing team (yes the ones who made me homeless for my keffiyeh comment & suspended me) investigates EVERYTHING… then protects the terrorist cheerleaders while Jewish & British students get terrorised. Politically twisted one way. Utterly useless.

This is the escalation: online doxxing → explicit death threats → real-world assault.

If something serious happens to me, I call on EVERYONE to expose Royal Holloway, their Wellbeing team, and Surrey Police for failing to act. I warned you. I am not safe here.

#TwoTierBritain #RoyalHolloway #CampusAntisemitism #TwoTierCampus #Antisemitism #RHUL #FreeSpeech

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

Many Jews hold @BBCNews responsible for the horrific rise in antisemitism.
They hate Jeremy of Arabia Bowen.
The biased coverage - often taking the word of terrorists - is a disgrace.
The BBC has blood on its hands.
@BBCr4today

[Ben Green @BenGreenJeru]

Some of the data in this article is staggering.

✅ More British Jews have moved to Israel in the past 12 months than in any other year since the turn of this century.

❌ Antisemitism is pushing about one in five British Jews to think about leaving.

❌ Jews experienced more than eight times as many hate-crime incidents per head of population as Muslims.

But as you read this article you realize how the BBC have contributed to Jews wanting to leave the UK.

❌ There is no debate about what “Globalize the Intifada means”. An Intifada is violent death for Jews, on buses, in cafes and it targets civilians.

The BBC both sides this.

❌ The BBC then promote Hamas numbers on the death toll in Gaza. They don’t include combatants. They don’t even mention that the Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t detail combatants.

Heck they don’t even say that Yahya Sinwar is one of the “people” they are lamenting. They don’t even attempt to explain how Hamas lost 25k fighters in a war they started with a massacre invasion.

And it’s been like this for nearly decades now.

The BBC have done as much as any institution in the UK to make Jews less safe.

[Zac Goldsmith @ZacGoldsmith]

Thank you for your messages @richardpbacon
Israel faces an enemy in Hezbollah that is committed, absolutely, to eradicating it. In other words it is committed, like Hamas, to genocide. If I were Israeli I’d want my govt to do its utmost to destroy it. 
Even as a non Israeli I would like to see the group destroyed. It sends unguided rockets into civilian areas, it embeds itself in civilian areas, all but guaranteeing any response by Israel harms civilians and it has torn Lebanon apart - which is why so many in Lebanon despise the terror group. 
All civilian deaths are abhorrent. In war they are also inevitable and much more so when the enemy goes out of its way to maximise the death of its own civilians (like Hamas, which despite all the billions it has spent on rockets and tunnels has never built any shelters for its civilians). 
But if Israel were to succeed in removing the threat of Hezbollah (and/or Hamas) there will be vastly more civilian lives saved than lost. 
I’ve just seen that you have bombarded me with tweets in the last 24 hours. I’m flattered you think my opinion matters that much. But I’m also confused why you only seem to be animated by casualties where you can blame Israel. 
Tragically the world is full of horrors of a different magnitude. But you seem completely obsessed by Israel, even though its actions (unlike those of the IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Syrian govt, the Sudanese armed forces, the RSF, the Afghan govt etc) are very obviously governed by a desire to remove acute and direct risks to its own citizens from organisations that are unambiguously committed to genociding Israelis.
Israeli attacks have resulted in civilian deaths. Like you I don’t know all the details. But I do know that is not the purpose of its attacks. Obviously I wish there were no civilian deaths caused by Israel or anyone else.  Even more, I wish death cult groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Taliban etc didn’t exist.  They are the real enemy Richard. Not Israel.

[Jack @FFS_WhatNow]

"Hitler was a failed art student and a vegan who blamed all his problems on rich people and the Jews.

"If he was around today, he'd be attending the Green Party conference'

Superb @LeoKearse 👏👏👏

[Talk @TalkTV]

🚨"Don't claim you are 'deeply shocked' by an attack on Jewish ambulances, because no one is shocked anymore.

"You've allowed marches, which are openly anti-Semitic, on the streets of London for the past few years!"

@JuliaHB1's message to Keir Starmer.

[Sam Kru @samkru]

@AmitSegal Unfortunately there is....the UK has also failed to get rid of its Iranian ambassador despite being directly targeted in Cyprus and Iraq. Shameful

[David Collier @mishtal]

I’ve rarely seen clearer evidence that @BBCNews has been captured

Reports say 400+ killed in a Pakistan airstrike on a Kabul hospital.

BBC headline? No Pakistan mentioned.
“400+” becomes an unattributed “dozens”. The word hospital is nowhere.

Compare it to the others...

[Phil Craig @philmcraig]

Right chaps, you'll be crossing over to France soon.

Now, the legal eagles have a few points to make. If you spot Jerry and he's about to take a pot shot just jot all the details down on form R45B and telex it back here and our crack team of international lawyers will be working at pace to give you the all clear within 3 hours, on weekdays that is.

One other tiny thing to remember. If the enemy is anywhere near a political, economic or infrastructure target, we're going to have to let them be for the moment but - never fear - our American cousins can take care of that once we've factored in all the mitigating factors, got Cabinet level permission and given them the bally green light.

Remember keep your eyes peeled and notebooks handy. We don't want to see too many of you up before Major Hermer for war crimes, do we?

God's speed and good hunting!

[David Wolfson @DXW_KC]

I disagree with Lord Hermer KC, the Attorney General. I don’t accept that international law requires our Prime Minister to deliver a pusillanimous statement setting out the UK’s position whose first point is “We did not participate”.

I’ve set out the gist of my approach below. ⬇️

The Prime Minister has refused publicly to support the US and Israel strikes, and also refuses to allow the US to use UK bases, because of international law advice he has reportedly received from Lord Hermer.

International law ought to provide a mechanism to restrain and, if necessary, end despotic and tyrannical regimes such as that in Iran. If the doctrines of international law prove unable to restrain Iranian terrorism and mass murder, and tie the hands of democracies while forcing them to stand and watch Iranian atrocities, international law will have failed. It will have become a fundamentally immoral system of law, and one which is worse than worthless in the modern world.

To be clear: I don’t believe that it is. I think international law is important, and both can and should provide a just legal order. I do, however, have serious questions as to the moral attitudes of some of its expositors; too many international lawyers serenely promote an analysis which ultimately protects tyrants.

Seven points, and some questions:

1 The inherent right to use force in the face of an imminent attack from a hostile nation which is responsible for a pattern of hostile actions exists for good reason: a country cannot be expected to remain idle and just wait for the next attack.

2 Iran has repeatedly threatened to attack the UK’s bases and personnel. Those threats come in the context of persistent Iranian attempts to launch attacks on UK soil, too; the Director General of MI5 has stated, and the PM confirmed last night, that the UK has responded to tens of Iranian-backed plots, presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents. There is also a constant barrage of cyberattacks; while not all cyberattacks are armed attacks in sense of Article 51 of the UN Charter, some may be, and all confirm not just hostile intent but action pursuant to such intent.

3 The UK’s long-standing allies, the US and Israel, were right to consider that they faced further attacks prior to their recent military action, given that (i) Iran has previously attacked both states directly and also through its many proxies; (ii) Iran has repeatedly stated its intent to destroy Israel; (iii) Iran was assessed to be on the brink of acquiring a nuclear capability with uranium enrichment at 60% (which can only be for military use); and (iv) Iran already possessed – as demonstrated by its recent attacks – a sophisticated and effective long-range delivery capability which Israel cannot fully neutralise with defensive weapons.

4 The acquisition of a nuclear capability by Iran represents a genocidal risk for Israel and its people. Iran’s repeatedly stated aim is to wipe the State of Israel, and its inhabitants, off the face of the earth. The slogan of the proxies through which Iran has often attacked Israel is: “God is greater, death to America, death to Israel, curse to the Jews, victory to Islam”. In these circumstances, whether they are characterised as part of an ongoing armed conflict with Iran or as a new use of force based on self-defence, Israel’s actions are justifiable.

5 The UK (and also the US) is permitted under international law to use force to aid another state which is acting in self-defence. Moreover, the UK is under an obligation in international law is to prevent genocide, not just to stop it: stopping an on-going genocide is required, but it necessarily means that action was taken too late.

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[Kate Hoey @CatharineHoey]

A brilliant article by @DanielJHannan