The George Soros-funded Human Rights Watch (no friend of Israel), has counted the death toll from the Qana bombing—and just like the Red Cross they come up with a much lower number than the one you’re seeing in all those media reports: Human Rights Watch puts Qana death toll at 28.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S.-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch on Wednesday put the death toll from an Israeli air strike at the Lebanese village of Qana at 28 and 13 missing, below the official Lebanese figure of 54 dead.

The incident on July 30 was one of the deadliest strikes in the 22-day-old war between Israel and the Lebanese-based Hizbollah guerrillas and jolted international efforts to resolve the conflict.

“The initial estimate of 54 persons killed was based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of the building that was struck, and rescue teams having located nine survivors,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement, and 28 are confirmed dead, according to records from the Lebanese Red Cross and the government hospital in Tyre,” Human Right Watch said in a statement. It gave the names and ages of those killed.

The other 13 people were missing and presumed by some Qana residents to be buried in the rubble.

Of the 28 dead, 16 were children, Human Rights Watch said.

UPDATE at 8/2/06 7:27:59 pm:

The usual trend after Islamic terror attacks (Mumbai, Madrid, London, New York, Jakarta, Bali, just to name a few) is for the death toll to increase over several days, as more and more bodies are discovered, and more wounded victims die from the secondary effects of shrapnel embedded in the terrorists’ weapons.

I can’t help noticing that in this case, the trend is exactly opposite.