Blaming Israel for the Crimes of Hamas

by Hugh Fitzgerald

From the Times of Israel:

Dozens of doctors, nurses and medical personnel in Gaza have been trained by Israeli teams in techniques to treat patients infected with the coronavirus, the Kan public broadcaster reported on April 11.

A training session was conducted for several hours for around 20 medical staff from Gaza at the Erez Border Crossing by a team from the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan. In addition, a group was allowed to leave Gaza for training at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and medical staff from both sides have held conference calls together, according to the report.

The initiative was held under the auspices of Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Defense Ministry’s liaison with the Palestinians, the broadcaster reported. There was no mention when the sessions took place.

Have you read or heard about Israel training Palestinian medical staff at the border crossing between Israel and Gaza, and at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon? Unlikely. Nothing about it in the New York Times, the Washington Post, on CNN or the BBC. Such a story would make Israel look good, and that would never do.

Last week, Hamas-run security forces arrested several peace activists in Gaza on treason charges after they took part in a web conference with Israeli activists. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the activists were accused of “holding a normalization activity with the Israeli occupation.” The activists held a nearly two-hour meeting on Monday over Zoom, an online conferencing service, discussing issues of common interest, including the coronavirus pandemic.

What depths of malevolence must Hamas have reached for it to arrest a handful of Gazans for the mere act of engaging in a video conference – no state secrets had passed, no declarations of disloyalty were made, everything was out in the open – with Israelis. The very act of having human contact with the “Zionists” was simply too much for Hamas to tolerate. Those Gazans who took part must have forgotten that Infidels are the “most vile of created beings” and that among those Infidels, the Jews are the most to be hated. A video conference with them must be out of the question. Anyone who needs reminding about how much hatred Hamas has for Israelis, including the left-wing Israelis who arranged this online meeting, made possible by Zoom, need only read about how the Hamas security services arrested Rami Aman, who was the chief organizer on the Palestinian side, and several of his associates. Aman has not been heard from since his arrest.

Aman describes himself as a freelance journalist and member of a group called the Gaza Youth Committee on his Facebook page. The video conference was organized by Israeli peace activists. An invitation link to a Zoom conference entitled “Meet Gazan Activists” was posted on a Facebook event page that has since expired. It read: “Finally, an opportunity to speak with Gazans who not only do not hate us but are working tirelessly to open channels of communication between Gazans and Israelis.” It also named Rami Aman and his group as participants.

Hamas immediately rounded up the Gazans involved. “Holding any activity or any contact with the Israeli occupation under any cover is a crime punishable by law and is treason to our people and their sacrifices,” Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bozom said in a statement. Apparently in Hamastan it is a far worse crime to talk to some Israelis on the Internet than it is to steal $2.5 billion dollars from the people of Gaza, as both Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk have done.

Health authorities in Gaza have reportedly decided to adopt an Israeli recommendation that the quarantine period for those infected be extended from the current two weeks to three weeks, due to a lack of medical facilities and testing equipment in the enclave.

There is concern that an outbreak could quickly spread and overwhelm an already precarious health system in Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says 12 people have been infected with the virus, including six who have recovered. It has said that all of those who carry or have carried the virus have been held in quarantine and haven’t mixed with the wider population.

In mid-March, Abdelnasser Soboh, the head of the World Health Organization’s sub-office in Gaza, said that the coastal enclave’s public health infrastructure would not be able to handle hundreds or thousands of cases.

“The health system in Gaza is already shaky and barely functioning. It cannot take on the burden of a large number of cases,” he told The Times of Israel, warning that such a scenario could contribute to its collapse.

There is here an ill-disguised reproof of Israel (though the country is not mentioned by name) — in this as in so many other articles — for not having given sufficient financial support to the health care system in Gaza. But that was never Israel’s responsibility. The Hamas-run government controls Gaza; it takes receipt of the billions in foreign aid that have been provided to the Gazans over the years; it is Hamas that decides how to spend that money. And Hamas spends much of that colossal aid not on health care, but on its own cadre of corrupt leaders, and on weapons and other instruments of the Jihad against Israel. When occasionally supplies of medicine run short, that is because the Palestinian Authority, which is responsible for buying and delivering the medicines for Gaza, from time to time withholds those supplies in order to punish its rival Hamas.

As to the corruption among the Hamas leaders, it is staggering. As noted above, two former leaders of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk, have each amassed fortunes of at least $2.5 billion, according to both Arab and American sources. Mahmoud Abbas of the PA is no slouch either. He and his two sons now rule over a business empire worth $400 million. In Gaza, among the upper echelons of Hamas there are 600 millionaires living in million-dollar villas. All that stolen aid money could have gone to buying medical equipment, paying for the training and retention of medical personnel, and building hospitals. Hamas chose not to do so.

The second great expenditure by Hamas has been on weapons – especially rockets and missiles to hurl at the Israeli towns in the south such as Sderot — and on dozens of tunnels, costing between $3 and $10 million dollars apiece. This too was money that could have been spent on health care. It was Hamas’s choice to make. Israel had nothing to do with it, and it is absurd and indecent to blame the Israelis for the state of health care in Gaza. Remember, too, that the Israelis have never blocked the transmission of either medicines or medical equipment to Gaza.

Hospitals in Gaza frequently lack sufficient medications and medical equipment and often rely on backup generators to maintain a consistent flow of power.

Israel’s blockade on Gaza, which has been aided by Egypt, has significantly undermined the territory’s health sector.

No matter how often this meretricious claim about Israel’s blockade undermining Gaza’s health care system is patiently refuted, it continues to be made. To repeat: Israel’s blockade of Gaza does NOT include medicines or medical equipment. Israel has done nothing that “significantly undermines [Gaza’s] health sector.” In fact, Israel has sent both testing kits and PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) to Gaza, a fact that keeps being overlooked in all the coronavirus-prompted stories blaming the Jewish state for the wretched condition of Gaza’s Hamas-run health sector. Not only that, but the head of Mossad paid a visit to the Emir of Qatar in early February to urge him to continue his financial support for Gaza. Some of that aid, which the Emir agreed to renew, could have been spent on improving health care for Gazans. Unsurprisingly, this Israeli intervention on behalf of the people of Gaza has received no attention in the mainstream media.

Israeli officials maintain that the blockade, a series of restrictions on the movement of goods and people, is in place to prevent Hamas and other terror groups from importing weapons, or the means to make them, into Gaza.

Earlier this month, Gerald Rockenschaub, the head of WHO’s mission to the Palestinians, said there were only 87 ventilators in Gaza, while noting up to 80 percent of them were already in use. Patients around the world with serious cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have required ventilators to stay alive.

Only 87 ventilators in Gaza? Again, whose fault is that? With the five billion dollars that just two men, Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk stole, how many ventilators might the Gazans now possess? How many hospitals? How many ICU beds? How many Gazans will die from the coronavirus, or other illnesses, because of the Hamas leaders’ years of unchecked Grand Theft?

Every time you are informed that Israel is responsible for the parlous state of Gaza’s health care system, reply by giving the data on the amounts of money that Hamas leaders have appropriated for themselves. Tell your informant, too, that Israel does not blockade either medicines or medical equipment, that the Israelis have supplied testing kits and PPE, that Israeli doctors and nurses are even now training Palestinian medical personnel, and that it is indecent to continue to blame Israel for the choices made by Hamas.

First published in Jihad Watch.